24 days of Christmas: A Countdown!

Welcome, December! You make the snow outside a little more bearable. Christmas season is really underway now, and I am L O V I N G it! I said it at Halloween, and I'll say it again-- holidays just come alive again when you have kids. All last month I was looking forward with an eye single to Grant's first Christmas (Hopefully this didn't detract too much from being thankful which is customary during this time.)--"What should I do for our first family Christmas card? What should Grant wear in his first picture with Santa?" (Thankfulness definitely should have replaced that frivolity.) "What kind of fun and silly traditions do we want to start? What kind of meaningful/service-oriented traditions do we want to start?" etc. etc. I have been racking my brain and scouring the internet for ways to make this first Christmas extra special. In light of the season, I have decided to share my holiday spirit with everyone in the form of a holiday countdown! I will share at least one holiday idea, project, or experience that I'm using to make Christmas special every day from now until Christmas. Brace yourselves (all three of you who are reading this).

Day 24

What better way to start a countdown than with an ADVENT CALENDAR! Seriously, one of my very favorite things as a kid at Christmastime was my own advent calendar that I could count down the days with. I loved opening the little doors on the paper calendars and seeing a new picture each day. Anticipation is half the fun of anything, after all. I found this little gem on the Queen of Craft herself, Martha Stewart's website:

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/baby-sock-advent-calendar

It was love at first sight for me. You put a treat or small toy inside each sock to pull out each day till Christmas! The socks are hung with little clothespins on a ribbon, and the ribbon hangs from your mantel or staircase. What a cute, crafty, and classy spin on an old favorite! I bought most of my baby socks from Kid-to-Kid (and Grant sacrificed a couple plain white ones), I bought the small clothespins at the craft store, and I cut the little numbers out on my Cricut. Here is my final product:

Since Grant is still too little to enjoy treats or toys small enough to fit inside baby socks, most of the loot will be for Jared this year. I've come up with various cheesy puns to go with the treats.

24 more days!

This is Halloween

Halloween is fun again! This past weekend proved to me that holidays really are more fun with kids. I had such a great Halloween. The real anticipation began about three weeks ago when I made Grant's costume. I was feeling in the spirit enough that I decided to plan a Halloween dinner party. About a week before the big day I had nothing festive left to do to show my enthusiasm so, I made Grant his own baby-sized trick-or-treat bag. I honestly haven't looked forward to Halloween this much in a LONG time. You might even say I was a little OVER-zealous, considering that we also planned to move apartments that same weekend. ugh. Well, with me there is a very fine line between fun and stress. I like to take it to the limits. Good thing there is enough time in between holidays for me to forget the stress part, so I can plan more crazy fun (poor Jared I don't think ever forgets, but he supports me anyway).

Anyway, here are a few pictures commemorating my baby dalmation's first Halloween.

Jared was Pinnochio for his work party--his department's theme was Shrek. I made him take off his nose so he wouldn't scare Grant. He still looked kinda scary, though.

Grant's eyes crossing due to his mother driving him crazy with all this Halloween exuberance.

Grant got to meet his Aunt Rachel, Uncle Paul, and sweet cousins this weekend. Him and baby Brooklyn were so cute in their costumes.

I LOVE this picture of Grant with all his cousins. Jared and I had the best Halloween. Special thanks to Grant for providing us with renewed enthusiasm, cute pics, and a little bag full of trick-or-treat candy.