Merry Christmas!

~Merry Christmas to You~

Embrace The Camera

Go ahead and hop in front of the camera. It will be nice.

 

 

 Especially do it if you wear an embarassing sweater in public and your child is too young to know it's embarassing. Eventually, they'll think you're embarassing...I can't wait for that day.

Light through the darkness

"We come to realize that we bear responsibility for every child, because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours, that we’re all parents, that they are all our children.
This is our first task, caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.
And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we’re meeting our obligations?
Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?
Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know they are loved and teaching them to love in return?
Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?"
-President Barack Obama

I don't have anything eloquent to say. I'm just sad. I can't make sense of it and none of us ever will. I felt silly blogging about our daily activities when something so horrific was really on my mind. Like most of you, I didn't feel right acting as if nothing happened. As I listened to our President trying to console some of the families that are having to bury their children too soon, I thought about my current situation and what I CAN actually do. There are, literally thousands of families and children that need help and need help NOW.
Let this horrific act be a call to action for every one of us to do what we can, to help those we can and let this shooting save more lives than it took.  
Good will overcome evil. We just need to decide if we will be a part of the driving force for good or if we let fear push us into the darkness.  
Pick a cause. Send money to build a water well in Africa to save THOUSANDS of lives. Adopt or Foster a child that is otherwise guaranteed a life of hardship and void of love. Mentor an adult that has had a life of despair and pain. Empower people to do a skill that will give them a lifelong steady income.
ANY one. Just PICK. Please.
This is the best time of the year to show love to one another. 
Please, help those in need.  
Please, be the light in the darkness. 
 

Getting her in the spirit

This is my GIANT So What!
I have mentioned before that I am a Christmas junkie. My entire life, I have loved everything about Christmas and each year I get a little depressed on December 26th and I have to take down all my decorations and all the gifts I pretended that I liked (kidding! No I'm not). Now that I have a daughter, Christmas has gotten even MORE fun and I am hoping that I can give her that same love of Christmas.
Now, let's just get this out in the open....we DO Santa. I don't think it's going to put my kid in counseling because I "lied" to her during childhood (she will probably already be in counseling because her mom's a kook and pushes Christmas down her throat, but whatever) because Santa is a cool guy. That childhood innocence is gone way too early and I want to embrace it while we still have it. So I taught her Santa Claus songs, we were the first in line to visit him and we talk about him being "nice" and jolly. We will do the Elf on the Shelf when she is old enough to actually name him and we will do ALL the other trends that come around.
We ALSO teach that Christmas is about Jesus' birthday. It's the best birthday party in the world for the most amazing man that ever walked the earth and we tell her that. We teach her that Christmas is about celebrating Jesus and not about the gifts (she's not about the gifts either...she asked Santa for a blue sucker. That's it.). If you ask her who's birthday is coming, she will say, "JESUS!"

All that being said, she loves to sing about Santa...so I let her. And it's freakin' cute.

Making Memories here!

We are out of town for most of our weekends in December, so that means we are cramming in all the "family Christmas time" here while we can get it. That means date night to see Eric Church (he's sorta Christmasy, right? His name is Church....it counts), visits to see Santa, looking at Christmas lights, delivering gifts, having family dinners, making crafts and visiting the "North Pole" at our local Bass Pro shop (welcome to Oklahoma, folks).

 Awkward hand placement on my part. I have no idea why I'm grabbing my own goods.

 When bored with daddy, improvise and make a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

 

We made some delicious Pinterest treats and they were a huge hit! Isabelle LOVED making them and my family LOVED eating only the good side and throwing out the plain pretzel side. Rude little sugar junkies.

 

Santa also listened to my request for Christmas to actually feel like Christmas with some cold weather. Yesterday a cold front blew in and made for a FREEZING morning. It actually IS starting to feel a lot like Christmas! It's a perfect morning in my book when we can enjoy story time together in our jammies, while I drink a fresh cup of coffee and Isabelle drinks some chocolate milk. I could die a happy momma. 

Of course, the cuddle time doesn't last all day and sister HAS to get her wiggles out, so we ventured to Bass Pro to get in some craft time and color some pictures for daddy before Santa came. Isabelle wanted to make sure to be gone by the time Santa showed up for his first shift.

 

You know it's going to be a good day when you park beside Santa's minivan. Who knew Santa drove a minivan to Oklahoma?

 

We had a great weekend and and in true toddler form, it ended with a tantrum, a time out and a wet bed. 

It is not beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

It was 80 degrees here yesterday. Call me crazy, but it's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you are blasting your Christmas tunes with your sun roof open and still having the AC on. This is the only month out of the year where I prefer it to be cold and I prefer some white stuff to fall on the ground (I almost forgot what it's called since we haven't seen any around these parts for almost 2 years!).
Thank the good Lord for Pinterest, because it has been the only thing that has reminded me that Christmas crafts and decorations are appropriate! I am trying to spread my Christmas cheer to my daughter so we decided to do a craft that I have had pinned for a while. You just put painters tape down on a canvas (Hobby Lobby is selling canvases for $3...you're losing money by NOT buying them) and then have your little one paint all over the canvas. Once the paint is dried, peel off the tape and voila! You have a magical creation! Isabelle's snowflake turned out perfectly, but she wanted to do more colors than just blue. I am a crafting Nazi, so we only did one color, but I think we will do this again and make it rainbow colors and a different design. The possibilities are endless!

You can also do this craft redneck style and use duck tape like we did. It did the job and Mr. T got to feel like he helped out since he always has duck tape on hand.
Come on over and share your idea...I need more things to do. Plus, I feel like I'm actually being productive when I pin things.