It's Almost Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I just love this time of year. Madeline helped decorate the Christmas tree; she loves using the ornaments as jewelry for herself and her stuffed animals. If I try to put them back on the tree, she'll say, "Mommy, that's Foofah's shoe!" (Foofah is a character from a strange, but entertaining children's show called Yo Gabba Gabba.) Charlie's fascinated too, but he mostly just likes to chew on the low hanging ornaments that we know are safe. We play A Charlie Brown Christmas and the Nutcracker on repeat; Madeline asks me daily when we can leave carrots and cookies for Santa and his reindeer. After waving to Santa in the mall, Madeline peppered me with questions about the North Pole for days. I sat her on my lap and we looked at Google Maps for 30 minutes, talking about polar bears and all sorts of other things. We're in the South, so there are giant nativity sets in every other lawn -- it's a great reminder to talk about Baby Jesus every time we hop in the car to run errands. Children put the wonder in Christmas; they allow us to be kids again!

We had so much fun going to Opryland's Christmas display with friends! There were millions of lights, a Christmas tree that rivals the one at Rockefeller Center, train rides, and life size zebras and giraffes on giant swings hanging from the atrium ceiling. We've also been doing the playdate circuit, celebrating Danish Christmas traditions, making ornaments and decorating gingerbread cookies. Every time I see Madeline and Charlie in the matching sweater dress/vest that Rob's mom gave them, I think I've died and gone to heaven.

Here are some of the day-to-day highlights in our house over the last few weeks:

• The heel on one of my black boots buckled and snapped. I took them off and said, "Oh well. These are broken." Madeline, who helps her daddy fix things on the weekends, ran into the kitchen and started smearing chap stick all over my boot. I realized she thought it was a glue stick! Then she asked me for a piece of tape and was absolutely triumphant when I let her believe they were repaired.
  
• Today in the grocery store, Madeline exclaimed out of the blue, "Mommy, you're awesome and I'm fun!" I should record that and play it for myself on bad hair days.
  
• Charlie is cruising, crawling on all fours, pulling up like a maniac and cutting his top two teeth (ouch!). Today as we were leaving the grocery store, he demanded his own balloon. If you think a ten month old can't tell you want he wants, well, then you should have been there. He's growing up!
  
• On Monday, the kids and I went to Rob's office to visit his coworkers and get their H1N1 boosters. I realized when I got home that I had two pairs of Elmo underwear dangling out of my back pocket.
  

We can hardly wait for Meg's family and grandma to arrive on Wednesday. Hope you're all enjoying this festive season and looking forward to the holiday!