Consider these halls decked

Little One is cracking me up. Her newest thing is offering a "biiiiite" to everyone. A bite of raisin, maybe a cracker, a baby doll hand. It doesn't really matter. She's brushing up on her sharing skills. I just like her generosity.

I pulled out my box of Christmas goodies from my childhood. This particular box was placed in the attic day one of living in this house and was only unearthed today. Little One was in heaven. The snowglobes, the Christmas trolls (please tell me you remember the troll craze...it was pre-beanie baby), the long-legged bendy Santa, old school plush ornaments. I'm amazed at what all my mother saved over the years.

We set up a tree in the nursery. The same tree that I used to decorate in my room as a little girl. When I open the door in the mornings to get LO, I am no longer greeted with a sleepy smile, horrendous breath, and a "mama." Oh, no. Now she sits in the corner of her crib, points at the tree with her left hand, right thumb in mouth with "lullie" clenched tight, and says, "yiiiiites, mama. Yiiiiiiites." And when I plug them in, the "oooooo," is so sweet.

What's up with being 21 months old and not wanting to change clothes? Like, sprinting around the house to avoid the torture of a clean diaper and fresh clothing? I've got rug burn on one knee from wrestling the child to the ground to strip her. Does this get any better?

I snagged a Little People nativity from Target during their three day sale. I only went to a million Target locations, even sending my mother to one in her city. I just knew LO would be in love with it. I pretty much have tried to force it down her throat. She'd rather play with a chip clip than that darn nativity.

But much to my delight, we have played endlessly with the Fontanini pieces we gave her last year for Christmas. They are perched under the tree in LO's room and might be one of the best inventions ever- beautiful characters that are practically indestructible. I imagine she could bite a hand off, but we've still got all our digits as of today.

While I love a hand addressed Christmas card, we decided it was worth it to invest a few hours typing up address labels this year. Rather than slaving away night after night trying to get all my i's dotted and t's crossed, we bit the bullet and spend a good 2 hours typing my fingers to the bone. I'm pretty sure that I'm over the top with the Christmas card list. I'm also pretty sure that I'm starting to be over the top with my use of magnolia leaves this year.

And even though I bought two rolls of gigantic mesh garland (as mentioned in another post), it turns out that I didn't even use it. I pulled out a few yards of burlap I had stashed in a drawer and cut it up. Voila. A tree skirt and help with my wreaths. I'm a fan of the natural look. I'm an even bigger fan of exposed green extension cords (see below).

And if you are still reading this, I'm really sorry. This has got to be the biggest bunch of mumbo jumbo writing I've ever done in my life. Except for maybe my diary from junior high. Hope you liked the pictures. :)