christmas 2013.

i knew that this holiday season was going to be a little different than in years past both because we were going to have a very new newborn with us and because avery is actually at an age where she can understand and get really excited about christmas.  i am loving the 'almost two' age (usually) because she just gets things now that she hasn't in the past and it makes things a lot more fun.  we knew that we definitely wanted to make the season fun for avery but i also knew that running around and doing a lot of activities wasn't going to happen because ellie was so new and honestly both charlie and i are still adjusting to the lack of sleep.  but because avery is old enough to get the holidays it's also made us think a lot more about how we want to celebrate and what traditions we want to establish.  

avery's really into the christmas decorations this year, which has been really fun.  we tried to involve her as much as possible in decorating since she gets so excited about it.  we broke our previous tradition of decorating for christmas the day after thanksgiving since we were planning on having ellie prior to thanksgiving.  we both knew that decorating with a newborn would be a lot less fun than enjoying the decorations while sitting on a couch with a newborn.  so charlie hung the outside lights at the beginning of november and we put up our inside decorations a week or so before thanksgiving. we've always kept it pretty simple inside (and even with that the clutter of the decorations is beginning to drive me nuts).  avery helped with the tree, although she was in a terrible mood that day so wasn't as into it as she might have been.  she's so cute because every time she sees the outside lights she'll say "daddy hang christmas lights.  thanks dad." and every time she sees the inside lights, like the ones i hung in the playroom she'll say "mommy hang christmas lights.  thanks mom".  it definitely makes decorating worth it to see how excited she still is over these things.  i got her a mini tree for her room and she's still really into holding the ornaments during diaper changes and turning the lights on and off of the tree.

charlie got a train for around the tree this year and she's liked it almost as much as he does.  it's the polar express and it came with the book (now we have two copies) and the bell.  

one of the christmas ideas that seems to be everywhere is the idea of wrapping up 25 christmas books and unwrapping one each day and reading it.  i love that idea but i also love the idea of having all of our christmas books available to read during december.  we read all the time and she's really liked some of the christmas books.  some of her favorites that we read every day are the bearenstein bears christmas tree, the sights and smells of christmas, the polar express, and 'twas the night before christmas.  i think her favorite out of all of them is the bearenstein bears and i've been pretty impressed that she'll sit through the whole book because it's long! and sometimes even ask for it to be read multiple times.  

we sort of do the elf on the shelf tradition.  neither charlie and i are sure if we're going to do the whole santa thing with avery.  i mean she knows who he is but we haven't done the whole concept of santa bringing you presents on christmas.  both of us hate the idea that santa brings you presents if you're good.  mostly, i just don't like the idea of using santa as a bribe or a threat and i don't want her behavior to be tied to some imaginary figure that brings presents.  also, i think that christmas can be pretty magical with or without the big guy in the red suit.  anyway, charlie told her that the elf comes during the holiday season and that he's there to watch over us and make sure that we're safe.  we do attempt to move him once a day although we've both been pretty bad at that but she does look for him and gets excited when he shows up in a different place.  charlie named him buddy last year and she'll tell you that buddy's the elf and he makes sure we're safe.














a few other things that we've done are baking christmas cookies.  avery was really into this and also really, really into eating them in front of the christmas tree.  i love how she gets so excited about little things like that.  we also made a christmas tree out of painters tape and then cut out ornaments for her to put on the tree.  i wasn't sure about this but it was actually a pretty big hit.  my mom did a few crafts with her when she was in town.  they did a foam christmas tree, a rudolph face that had to be glued together, we made another rudolph one day at barnes and noble when they had crafts, and we made snowmen out of foam balls.  avery's really into crafts so all of these were fun, easy activities that made the really cold weather that we've been having not seem so terrible.  

we also watched a christmas movie.  avery's never actually watched a movie before so this was sort of extra special.  we started the grinch for her one night and then she finished it the next morning.  she really liked it and snuggled up with charlie during most of the movie.  i also found the bearenstein bears christmas tree (the book that we read all the time) on youtube and we watched that.  it's a short one (about 20 minutes) and she liked it but it didn't hold her attention nearly as well as the grinch did.  when she gets older i'd love to have friday's during advent be christmas movie nights because there are so many good christmas movies to pick from.





















but mostly we've spent this time just hanging out as a family and wearing a lot of christmas pj's.  avery's been playing a lot, we've been coloring and drawing santas and snowmen, we've been taking turing holding ellie, and just spending this time just enjoying being a family of four.  we'll have visitors the last 2 weeks of december and this time with just the four of us has been really, really nice.  in the future, especially as the kids get older i know we'll be doing more activities, but i hope that we don't get too busy during this season, that we learn to say no to certain things, enjoy time as a family, and focus on family and friends and the time that we spend together.  i feel so incredibly fortunate to have had this time with my family, without charlie traveling, and to have had so much family come and visit us.  it's really been the perfect christmas season.