Getting Ready for Christmas

It's really beginning to seem like the Christmas season around here! A few days ago Alexee decided she'd better write her letter to Santa. Rhett e-mailed his to Santa back in the summer. :) She wrote everything herself, with me telling her how to spell things. So cute. (I love how she got right to the point.)

Dear Santa,

Barbie

Teddy Bear

Jewelry

Makeup

Poodle backpack

Marie Grace, dog, stuff (Marie Grace American Girl doll and accessories)

--Alexee
She put it in an envelope and covered it with snowflake stickers then took it to the mailbox.Last Tuesday after school I'd promised the kids we could decorate the playroom Christmas tree. We baked Pillsbury tree cookies for the occasion.That night they wore their new Christmas PJs for the first time.The playroom tree is covered with their ornaments from friends and ones they've made from home, church and school. It's sweet to see those ornaments each year.
We placed all their Christmas books underneath the tree. They love reading these.

One day last week we went to R's school for a meeting and Alexee asked me to take her picture by the pretty lobby display. :)

Saturday we cut down our Christmas tree at the tree farm. I have to admit that the tree seemed a LOT bigger in our house than it did in the field--ha! It almost blocks the walkway from the door to the living room, but I think it's a really pretty tree and it smells great! Just like last year, several ornaments got broken. There were so many little hands grabbing at things at once!

Our elf, Cookie, returned on December 1st. The kids have been having so much fun searching for him each morning. They've been getting up earlier to look for him. A few days ago Bogart started growling at 5:30 a.m. and Lane jumped up to see what was going on. When he looked in the living room he saw Alexee walking around with a flashlight--Rhett right beside her--searching the darkness for the elf. One morning he was found driving a Jeep, another time he was peeking out of the box of Cheerios. This morning he was sitting up on the light in the guest bathroom and he'd pulled several hand-towels out of the cabinet.

Before church yesterday--kids in Christmas clothes.

After church Rhett arranged the Nativity scene on a table in the bedroom.On November 30th I decided to make a countdown to Christmas for the kids. I wish I'd spent more time on it to make it look better, but they seem to like it anyway. I made 24 nativity pieces, numbered them and put them in a bag. They take turns finding the piece and glueing it on the poster. I had to also number the places so we'd have enough room to fit everyone/everything. I should have used a bigger background. The next to last piece will be the manger, and on Christmas morning we'll add baby Jesus to complete the picture.

(so far we have the innkeeper, a tree, a star and hay bales)

Yesterday we also started (a week late) an Advent reading provided by our church. Rhett has been reading the assigned scriptures and does such a good job. This week is about the promise of a Savior and the reading was about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. We explained those to him, and he was really interested. The song for the night was O Come Emmanuel but we didn't know all the words and had not looked them up, so Rhett suggested we just close with Let it Snow instead! :) (I really didn't know those words either, but he seemed to because they're practicing it for their upcoming 2nd grade program.)

We've also hung a string of lights in the kids' rooms. One of my favorite things is going to check on the kids at night and seeing them sleeping sweetly by the glow of their Christmas lights. I'm SO grateful for the blessing of sharing this special season with them. It's wonderful to see their excitement. Tonight C was in his bed with the lights glowing and I started to say a prayer with him like always. He stopped me and said, "No, I say it." :) That was the first time he'd ever wanted to say it. He prayed very quietly so I couldn't hear/understand everything he said, but I did hear "Rhett have good day at school and Daddy good day at hospital". What a JOY!

Our Christmas cards arrived via UPS today and I was very excited until I opened the box. My heart sank when I saw that the font was way too dark and I could barely see/read it. I was sick about it all night and finally decided to call Snapfish and ask if they'd reprint them. It turns out they will--no questions asked! I'm horrible at things like that--I really didn't want to call because I was afraid I'd have to try to talk them into it or explain why I messed up the font color to begin with. The customer service person was very nice and resolved the issue while I was on the phone with him...and they even gave me free overnight shipping for the reprints. Yay!

I think that brings me up to date on Christmas activities up to this point. Both R and A have their Christmas programs on Thursday and I need to decide on a dessert to take to a teacher luncheon on Friday. And I guess I need to start Christmas shopping.