Christmas Countdown - let the craziness begin.

December is here. Wait - what? Where did November go? I think I blinked and missed it. Time to get my act together and get in the Christmas spirit! Actually I love Christmas. I just feel overwhelmed by all there is to do - but then, that's nothing out of the ordinary, there's always too much to do and not enough time. I need to have a kid-free house for at least two days to get caught up, but that's never going to happen - time to buck up, chug some coffee, and get a move on! And I'm not sure why I'm always surprised to see more than half the bottle of wine empty the next morning, but there you have it - and I always am. Anywho! Yesterday I took all four of my precious little darlings to the mall for haircuts! I bribed them for good behavior by promising them a ride on the Christmas train behind Santa's court at the mall. They had it all to themselves and all four piled into the engine car, because that's the one with the bell.

Well. All was well and good until about the 4th loop around (the gentleman running the train was on the phone and let them go a good long time) when William started YANKING on the bell pull as hard as he possibly could. I snarled at him to cut it out when they rolled past, and as soon as he thought he was out of sight of me he started it again. Next year William either 1) doesn't get to ride the train or 2) is not allowed in the front car with the bell.

 Other happenings? Evie is already pestering me about who is going to put out the carrots and water for the reindeer. You know, on Christmas Eve. I'm trying to be patient - I know they are all giddy with excitement (William didn't pass out until about 10:30 last night, couldn't sleep) but stuff like this gets on my nerves - can we PLEASE get the house decorated first & take this one day at a time??

So a few years ago, in order to get free shipping from Hearthsong, I ordered a kit to make an Advent calendar. This year I finally got around to making it! Although I was cutting it close - I still had 7 pockets to make before it was finished, and William was kind enough to figure out a way I could get it all done in time - I could make 3 on Tuesday and 4 on Wednesday, and then I'd be finished! He even wrote it down for me :)

 Last night I finished stitching the pockets together while drinking wine and harassing Matt into helping figure out what we were going to put in them - nothing like waiting until the last minute :)

 

But it all got done, and the kids were really excited this morning to see what the first day would bring :) Since Evie always gets stuck waiting for the little kids to go first, I thought we'd go oldest to youngest with this, so she opened up number 1 - today we're going to deck the halls for Christmas :) Yay!

I'm really happy with how it turned out :) Happy December!