Our Weekend

Oh mercy me, have things been nuts around our parts lately {hence the nine day blog hiatus}. I've had an excited, exhausted & overwhelmed brain for the past couple of weeks & that's no combination for a good writing session. My brain refuses to function on fuzzy/foggy & subsequently-- no blog posts. But the fuzz & fog is clearing & as soon as I can, I'll be spilling some details.

For now, I'll tide you over with some scenes from our weekend.

We got our Christmas on.

I used to be one of those people who thought it a crime to put Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving had been given the proper celebration. And then I broke all the rules one year & put the tree up early. And I liked it. And I realized that Thanksgiving didn't get shorted in the least, just because a Christmas tree stood glistening in the corner. Turns out, you can get your Thanksgiving & your Christmas on at the same time. Huh. Who knew?

Lulla went crazy over the twinkle lights. She carried on-- squealing & hollering & of course, trying to eat those tiny white lights right off the strand. She was simply mesmerized.

This was the first year that Jett really got in on the action of decorating the tree. With each ornament he pulled from the big bin labeled Christmas, his uncontainable excitement grew & grew. We did end up having a little chat about leaving the ornaments on the tree--that even though they may look like toys, they are actually very special keepsakes that are not for playing with. That's a tough concept for an almost three year old. There were a few tears but he finally gets it.

We broke out the Christmas jammies. And we snuggled. Because Christmas jammies & snuggling go hand in hand. That's just the way it is.

Every single day, since the day Lulla was born, Jett asks at least one time a day if he can hold her. Granted, it only lasts about forty-five seconds, but it's long enough for this heart of mine to melt {& sometimes sprint for my camera}. I love their love for each other.

He insists that baby Jesus needs a jacket because he must be cold in that manger. And this morning baby Jesus joined us at the table for scrambled eggs. This Little People nativity set that our friend, Deb gave to us a couple of years ago is such a hit with my boy. We are even seeing his little wheels beginning to turn as we tell him bits & pieces of the birth of Jesus. 

We decked the halls with our favorite holiday pretties--the pine cone ornaments Jett & I made after he gathered pine cones from the backyard & painted them with gold glitter paint, his salt dough handprint ornament from last year, & a ceramic Christmas house {just like the one Jared grew up with} that my mother in law surprised all of us girls with last year for Christmas.

I wasn't quite ready to bust out my Christmas cookie recipe & cookie cutters just yet, but I was feeling the urge to saturate my home with some kind of made-from-scratch baked good aroma . Lucky for me,  I just so happened to have three ripe bananas & a bomb-diggity recipe for banana bread on hand. {Thank you, Meghann! Best. Banana bread. Ever.}

Jared put the outside lights up. This man is the best dad. We are seriously up to our ears in crazy life right now, yet he refuses to let anything stop him from bringing a twinkle to his kiddos' eyes. When I suggested to him that maybe this year we just skip the outside lights, he said to me, "Jett loved the lights so much last year. I've got to do it." I love the way he loves our babies.

Lord knows I've got a thing for chocolate in the powder form. Just add milk & there you have it--complete perfection. I love me some hot cocoa. I make it homemade. I buy the Swiss Miss packets with the teensy marshmallows inside. I purchase every novelty can of it that I find at Williams Sonoma & Home Goods. I can't resist the stuff. And there's a little someone who's following pretty closely in my chocolate craving footsteps...

Our weekend, full of Christmas music & thankful hearts was just the break my fuzzy, foggy, overstimulated brain needed. There's just something that jamming out in the living room to holiday jingles with my chubby, giggling baby girl clutched close that makes the rest of the world fade away. There's something about seeing my almost three year old boy try to contain his excitement, only for it to reveal itself in crazy jumps off the couch & squeals of laughter bursting from the depths of him.

Our weekend, it was just a taste of the many that are awaiting us this holiday season.

I'm pumped.