1st Week

What did the first week of December have in store for us?

...Searching for the "perfect" Christmas tree on a 60 degree day!

Yes, it was 60 degrees out, but I still  had hats, scarves, and winter coats on us.

I say it every year, and I'll say it again -

Searching for and cutting down the "perfect" Christmas tree every year are some of my favorite memories growing up...and I will continue on with that tradition with my kids in hopes that those few hours at the Christmas Tree farm every year will find a special place in their memories as well.

I wanted a really small tree this year.  

But...

I think it comes close to being one of the biggest ones we've ever had.

It's nice and round.

This week, we also had a surprise visitor.

We were all downstairs in the living room, laying on the floor and coloring.
All of a sudden we heard a "THUMP" and a "BUMP" and a loud "BOOM".
The noise was coming from upstairs and Makayla, the brave one that she is, stood up and whispered "I'll go see what that was."

So...we all followed behind her.

We tiptoed upstairs and to our surprise, the elf had made a visit!  After waiting patiently and the kids asking every.single.day why the elf hadn't come to our house yet, he finally came back all the way from the North Pole!  He had somehow (with his magic) sneaked into the house and decorated Christmas trees in the kids' bedrooms!

WOW!

That sneaky little elf!
The first year he visited us, his name was Elf and last year, Makayla changed his name to Princess.  Well, when she addressed him by the name of Princess this year, Mason FREAKED out.  Princess is a GIRL'S name!!!...and Mason wasn't going to have that, so they re-named him Glitter...

!

The kids have already colored pictures for Glitter to take back to the North Pole with him and they also wrote out their Christmas list for Glitter to take back and give to Santa.

We can't wait to see the excitement that Glitter is going to bring to our house this season.

Besides decorating our tree and getting to finally welcome Glitter back into our home, mommy and daddy got to have a little grown-up time together to celebrate the season.

We had a wonderful night out for the hospital's Christmas party! -  a theme of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (with a Cousin Eddie look-alike contest and an ugly Christmas sweater contest), some of our dearest friends, one of our favorite restaurants to cater, one of our favorite bands to listen to, and some of my favorite drinks throughout the night...

It made for a great night!

...and one last thing we got to do - another one of my very favorite things to do during the Christmas season -

We had a date.
Just mommy and daddy.

We had lunch together and did our Christmas shopping.

...and to top it all off - it was snowing the entire time we were out and about!!

Aaaahhhh

'Tis the Season!!