What We'll be Doing

It's and we're on the cusp of Christmas Eve. Some people don't start their celebrations until Christmas Eve and others, like us, will already be running around trying to see everyone. 

Here's a look at our itinerary.

Sunday

Christmas Eve-Eve

My grandmother's (dad's mom) for lunch at one. 30 minute drive there and back.

Nap time. Because I will be damned if we're missing that.

Dinner with my husband's dad's family. At a restaurant and then back to his grandmother's for a white elephant exchange.

Monday

Christmas Eve

My husband has to work until around 2 p.m.

My daughter and I will use this "alone" time to go spend a while with my parents.

Then we'll have nap time.

Dinner with my husband's mom's family at six and another white elephant exchange.

After that, our daughter's godparents will come over to exchange gifts. This is mostly relaxing, other than the toddler won't go to sleep so Santa can get to work until they leave. 

My husband and I will be lucky to get a few hours sleep. We have a kitchen to build, a chair to assemble and a giraffe rocker to put together. Mainly, that kitchen....

Tuesday

Christmas Day

We will wake up whenever the little one does and promptly get to the toy business.

And as soon as humanly possible, I will begin imbibing gallons of coffee. 

We'll play for a while, my parents will come over.

Then we'll go to my parent's for lunch. Exchange gifts with my brothers and nieces.

We'll have nap time.

When we wake up from that, we'll head to my husband's parent's to open gifts with them. 

We'll get home who knows when.

Wednesday

The Clean Up

My husband and I have the day off. Our plan is to play with toys all day long. Period. And take a nap. 

So that's pretty much it. That's not too much, right? 

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!!

Last Working Day!

Today will be my last work day before Christmas. My heart is eager to embrace the morning of that day, little eyes thrilled to see all of the fun prezzies the man in the red suit brought her. There will be lots of prezzies for the little girl: a kitchen, dishes, a rocking giraffe, a little Nod Chair, lots of art supplies and other goodies, books. We went a bit overboard, for sure. But light of everything, I feel warmth and peace about it. I'm glad that I have my girl here with me, that I can shower her with gifts and kisses and see her face on that special day. 

Nothing in this world would sound more appealing to me. Other than the gift of five straight days off to spend with her! We'll see family and be running everywhere to fit it all in. But we'll be together. The stress that has built in our lives over the past weeks will magically melt away; it always does. 

The house, already filled with the smell of Christmas needles, will smell sweeter these days. There will be limitless magic made in our little house. A little girl will be filled with eager anticipation of presents, by the over eager heart of her own mother. We will make memories, sweeter than any aroma. We have been adding sticky glitter foam letters to packages to spruce up the boring store-bought paper. We have pretty little birds for our labels, and her little eyes shine when she sees them. She knows which package belongs to which beloved relative and goes and points to them. She takes ornaments from the tree and brings them to me to rehang. There will be days of this and each of them will be cherished forever in my mama heart. 

The good thing about my mama heart is that its capacity to hold memories and give love is limitless. And just in case, I have lots of cameras laying around to snap more solid memories. 

I just want to, need to, cling to every moment and hold it tight. This Christmas will be the best one yet and I don't want to forget one singe thing that happens, not one hug, one kiss, or even one tantrum. 

I'm going to be soaking up the holidays. My plan is to schedule some posts to go up during the next few days, but there might be a gap. I'll be back on Thursday, but for now...I'm off to enjoy, breath, live, consume every moment of this lovely holiday.

Happy Christmas!!

Elf on the Shelf Antics

Our elf on the shelf has been a very fun part of this holiday season.

Letting the kid look for Snowflake is my favorite part of the day.

My second favorite part of the day is hiding Snowflake...or even better when I have to find where my husband hid him!

Here are some of the antics: 

this was a particularly fun day, hence all the photos. :)

Making Christmas Magic

Our Elf on the Shelf has given me a new perspective on Christmas as a mama. Everyone always says what a magical time of year Christmas is, but how and why is it so magical?

via

The answer lies within you. 

Last night, a friend was asking me about our elf. And my daughter was sitting in my lap; her daughter was laying in her belly. She asked how long we'd had Snowflake, and I told her we had gotten him this week. And she was asking if he moved around the house, and I was telling her about the places he'd been. My husband was like, hey, the little girl's listening. Yes, indeed she was. Our words were guarded to preserve the magic but she was still listening intently. 

And that's when it dawned on me. I am the magic maker. The magic she will know during this season will be created by yours truly. Each magical activity we do, the elf, Santa, right down to decorating, all of that is created by us. An illusion that magic exists, perhaps, but what is magic other than our own perception? The magician masterfully creates an illusion which we perceive to be  what the magician desires for us to perceive. And that is that. 

Her memories, her beliefs, they will all come straight from my own hands. I will create the illusions of Snowflake the elf and of Santa Claus, and I will do it so well that she believes that I believe, and the magic will come from within me. And in so doing all of this, I, too, will believe in the magic that I myself create. 

And I will have more fun in life than others. And so will she.