Christmas Prep

Preparing for Christmas and all of the fun that comes with it is almost as much fun as Christmas itself.  I’m not talking about the shopping because I don’t enjoy shopping and usually get a lot of gifts online.  I’m talking about decorating the tree, frosting sugar cookies, Christmas parades and everything else.  I do think stores start prepping way too early and it is always too early for Christmas music, but once December comes around I start getting in the swing of things.

Even though we are going to be in Illinois for Christmas this year, we still decorated our tree.  We let the girls hang up their special ornaments, so most of those were on the lower third of the tree.  Malia insisted on all of her ornaments being hung in the same area.  She had a very crowded couple of branches.  Our tree may not win any prizes for best decorated, but it is decorated with love and fun.

Trying to spread the ornaments out a little

Malia's area

Looking at the village under the tree

We also ventured out this year to the town’s tree lighting ceremony.  We ended up missing the actual tree lighting ceremony, but we had fun watching the parade before it and the fireworks after it.  It was cold, but we (I) came prepared with blankets and hot cocoa. 

Waiting for the parade to stop

Parade time

Watching the fireworks

It wouldn’t be Christmas without Christmas baked goods (at least not in my house).  The girls and I decorated a gingerbread village.  Malia was very excited to be included this year, and she actually ate less of the candy than I expected.  Malia needed a little help with the squeezing of the icing, but she was very careful about where she placed her decorations.  Hadley was meticulous as always and needed almost no help from me. 

Later in the day, Gideon joined us for decorating sugar cookies.  This was my first time making and working with royal frosting.  The girls had some trouble squeezing out the frosting, but that didn’t stop them.  I know now I made it too thick, but it was still fun to decorate the cookies.

December is always a busy month, but it is important to remember to slow down, do something fun, and treasure every moment of it.