I remember how excited I was as a kid to decorate for Christmas!! This year, not so much. A serious lack of motivation has set in. However, we did (we, meaning Neil and the boys) got the decorations out of the garage attic. We decorated (we, meaning, the boys) the tree and put a few decorations out. We (we, meaning I) didn't help them out and we didn't finish. We'll finish up tomorrow, I hope. We (we, meaning Neil) did "put up" the Christmas lights on the outside of the house. By "put up" I mean plugged in. Yeah, we totally didn't take our lights off the house last year. It's been only slightly embarrassing for the last 365 days. We are awesome, I know. By awesome, I mean lame, retarded and ridiculous. I mean, it's us . . . the ones who didn't take 18 ft pool down until it snowed 6 inches in it. What's the fun in taking it down in nice weather? Blizzard is much more exciting!
Anyway . . . our tree is definitely NOT going to win any beauty awards, but I love that the boys did it all. It's NOT a Grandma Livingston approved tree. This would not pass the test at her house - it's way too chaotic and mixed up! I'll have to either get a stool for them to finish or finish it for them.
I am not sure if you can see some of my favorites of this tree . . . there's no decorations above Gunnar's reach; there's a Rescue Hero toy hanging from the bead garland; there's a snowman ornament hanging in it's protective storage container and the giant wreath of Paden's hands. There was two wreaths of hands, but I am not sure what happened to the other. But seriously, my most favorite is that they were SOOO happily decorating the tree together - all three boys. I am not sure how much help Fischer actually was, but he was right there in the mix of things. They got out their Thomas the Tank Engine track and built a track under the tree.
I was in the kitchen making dinner and Paden comes to ask me to write the following note:"Dear Santa,
Please turn off the engine. Have a Merry Christmas!"
The 8.5 x 11 sized note is hanging directly on the tree at Paden's eye level. He explained that they want to leave Thomas running on Christmas Eve, but that Santa should turn it off because we don't want the batteries to run out. They just think of everything don't they? Paden also reminded me that we need to make cookies for Santa. Thanks, Pade . . . probably don't need to do that today, but thanks for the reminder! :-)
Gotta love those boys. They are so fun. Oh, I almost forgot. Did you know that I am the best mom in the whole world because I helped them put in Christmas lights all around their bedroom? How sweet. I didn't realize how easy it was to be mom of the year. Here I am trying to keep clean clothes in the dressers, keep food in the bellies, keep the dirt out of their fingernails and keep the word of God in their minds. Wow, have I been focusing my energies in the wrong place. It's all the Christmas lights . . . it's all in the Christmas lights.
I think we are pretty well done Christmas shopping. We are going light this year. It's hard to break away from wanting the boys have longer than 2 minutes of opening presents joy. But, in reality, they don't NEED a darn thing. Since the boys aren't one of my two faithful blog readers, I can spill the beans on what we talked Santa into bringing to our house this year. We got a Harbor Freight special tool box. Over 100 piece tool set in a 4-drawer box for $35! What a steal! It's in the back of the van, they haven't managed to look back there in the last 4 days! We got an erector set from Costco, something for Gunnar to use the tools on. Paden likes tools too, but not as much as Gunnar, so we plan on getting him the new Donkey Kong game, which puts us over our desired $100 Christmas budget by a little bit. Neil really believes that 18-month old Fischer doesn't need anything for Christmas, but you can't tell me that he won't be right there looking for what's his. So, I am not really sure what to get him. The boys really want snuggies - so if any family members out there are struggling with what to get the boys - snuggies. Adult size, please! :)
On a non-Christmas related note . . . we are taking away the binkie. Wish us luck. On Friday, we took Fischer for his 18-month check up. All is well, except that we (we, meaning me, myself and I) got "reprimanded" for having the binkie in the backpack. So, yeah, it's time. Fischer has looked for it a couple of times today. I let him have it last night because he was with a baby sitter, but when he woke up in the middle of the night, I couldn't find it, so I thought what a better time than the middle of the night to make the kid give it up. I brought him into bed with him and he definitely fidgeted for much longer without it. When Gunnar was little, he had a binkie, but he was not attached to it all. When he turned 18 months old, I put the binkies in the cupboard and he never, ever had an issue. Paden never took to a binkie. I really thought that I could go 18 months with Fischer's bink. I think I made the wrong choice. The kid is a little and by a little, I mean a lot) attached to it. I am sure he'll made through relatively un-traumatized by the event. He already hasn't been sleeping through the night, so it's not really that big of deal. Right? Right.
Wow, it's way past my bedtime! The end . . .
