Over Thanksgiving weekend we ventured down to the end of our street to pick out our first Christmas tree as a family of four. Caroline had a blast running around the lot and since it is located in our neighborhood we ran into several friends while scouting out the perfect tree.
Also, one of the very best parts of our adventure was watching Thomas take it all in. We are noticing a HUGE improvement in his vision recently and we cannot sing enough praises for this miracle!
He is also really into faces these days and loves feeling Matt's scruffy cheeks and grabs for his glasses.
We had good behavior all around from the kiddos. There was a brief moment while informing Caroline that we couldn't get the little tree that we prepared for a a full fledged public toddler meltdown, but thankfully she was quickly distracted.
As soon as we arrived home the Christmas tree was whipped straight inside, furniture was rearranged and Matt brought all the Christmas boxes down from the attic without one
argument...so we celebrated with festive champagne cocktails (with
rosemary & cranberries). Now, stringing the lights was a different
story. Ha! After a few "discussions" about starting at the top versus the bottom, I
finally conceded and agreed to let Matt do the lights this year because
it still hurts to reach above my head. And shhhh, between you and me,
he did a great job too. So, more champagne!
This year Caroline was allllllll about "helping" which made decorating the tree take two days longer than usual. Every time I turned around she was unrolling ribbon throughout the house, digging through boxes of ornaments or trying to plug lights together. So basically one of us had to be on Caroline watch while the other worked on the tree.
See what I mean by helpful? She also managed to hang and remove the ornaments on the bottom of the tree two thousand times.
Every year the dang bow takes me hours to make. And even though I've fluffed and rearranged it soooo many times I could mess with that thing all season long and never be satisfied.
Our Monogrammed Juco Skirt is from CoraLee Boutique and Courtney is still offering all my readers a 25% discount on all monogrammed items!
Just use the promo code CAROLINACHARM25 at checkout! Make sure to place your orders by today to guarantee delivery by Christmas.
The Pentatonix Holiday Pandora station is guaranteed motivation to start wrapping gifts too. I
love the pretty plaid wrapping paper I picked up this year (from
Michaels). The kiddos gifts will be wrapped in a more obnoxiously busy
and bright paper.
And a few pictures of the minis in their adorable matchy matchy jammies in front of the tree. I actually won one of these sets from a Smocked Auctions giveaway last summer and have been so excited to finally pull them out.
A little dance party. We love living room dance parties.
This year we hung our Christmas cards on our pantry doors with washi tape. And since this is the busiest place in our home I get to smile a lot while I'm fishing around for animal crackers.
In full disclosure, the thought crossed my mind to remove all of the kiddos toys, vacuum and fluff up the present that Caroline has obviously figured out is a riding toy before snapping a picture of our stockings and half decorated mantel. Buuuuut, this is real life right here folks and the decorating probably won't get finished anyway!
Also, every year I frame our Christmas card and add it to our collection. And every year Matt says "you should just buy a lifetime supply of these frames in case they discontinue them" and I laugh and tell him that's a terrible idea and remind him how tiny our attic storage is. Of course, this is the year that my silver frame was discontinued and now only available in black. That was a fun shopping discovery with Matt.
A new tradition we started this year was our Advent calendar! We received this as a gift the day before Advent began and it has been one of our favorite things to do after dinner together each night. All of the boxes are filled with m&ms and before we open the box we have to each say something we're thankful for. Caroline participates in her own language but I'd like to think I've made it on her list at some point. She also loves to share her candy with each of us which is pretty awesome.
We always receive a lot of compliments on our Moravian star. This advent symbol is rich in history and is the official Christmas street decoration in Winston-Salem, which was founded by Moravians in 1766. I'm pretty sure Matt's parents gifted this star to Matt long ago because we've been hanging it for years! Anyway, you can find one here.
