December Stuff & Santa's Coming!

This is my kind of winter:

Snows fairly early in December and stays pretty and white through Christmas.

None of that freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw business, leaving us with a dreary, non-wintery looking holiday. If I had an "in" with Mother Nature, I would have snow for Thanksgiving, a beautiful white Christmas (the kind where everything is silent and snow is just falling so quiet and pretty without crazy winds)... and then spring immediately starting after January 1st. :) That way my birthday wouldn't always have to be in such a glum time of year. Haha.

Here are some pictures from a pretty (early) morning last weekend. Will had, of course, woken me up at o'dark-thirty and I was struggling to feel chipper at that hour. ;) Thankfully, when the sun started to rise, we were greeted by a beautiful (cold!) winter morning.

Will loves how the frost on windows and glass doors looks like spiderwebs or feathery-fingers.

December is such an exciting and busy month. There's so much to do, so much to organize and so little time. We elected not to do Christmas cards this year, so that was a time savings. And our gift shopping has seriously scaled back for everyone beyond our kids and nieces, so that's less gift stress and wrapping. It seems we are always trying to simplify the holidays and keep the true meaning of Christmas, and yet despite our best efforts, we usually aren't successful. One of the things I most wanted to accomplish this holiday season was to take Will shopping for a gift for someone in need - warm clothing for people who don't have it or maybe an angel tree gift for a less fortunate child. Neither of which has happened. So I think after the hoopla of parties is over and we survey all the new, wonderful things we're bringing into our home, I'd like to have Will help me sort through some of the things we currently own that we use less frequently and make a donation of toys and books to the Salvation Army or something. That should be interesting. Will had his Christmas party at school this week and he really struggled at first that the gift we were buying for the exchange at school was not one that he would get to keep. That's a difficult concept for a child to grasp at age 3 - that the world doesn't in fact revolve around them and it's a very good and kind thing to give to someone else.

December also holds a couple of special milestones I'll always remember about my children.

December 24, 2006 (sitting at Christmas Eve mass) was the first time I felt Will move during my pregnancy with him. That was so special and exciting and it just made the magic of the holidays even better for me.

December 5th, 2008 was the day we found out we were having a daughter. Another one of the most exciting moments of my life.

We are getting so excited for Christmas! Will loves going to parties and seeing all our family & friends. So we keep anxiously counting down the days till each event. This past Sunday was our first party at my Grandma & Grandpa Koneskys. (Another post on that coming soon.) And we have four parties back-to-back (on four consecutive days) this weekend. Hustle and bustle is inevitable, but hopefully we'll be able to relax at each one now that our family has graciously rearranged not to have multiple parties on one day.

Here are some of the things we've been up to this month:

Will loved this dot stamper activity from PreKinders. Craig set it out for him one day while I was at work.

We went to a kiddie party a couple weekends ago with Craig's family and the kids saw Santa again! I'm surprised Will's attention to details hasn't led him to ask why Santa looks different every time we see him. :)

Here's a project that's all over the blogosphere this year (& last). We traced the kids hands and feet to make reindeer!

I'm a little disappointed with my dining room decor this year. I had all sorts of visions of blue and silver and white decor to warm up my new dining room color. But alas, we didn't spend any frivolous money this season and I think I'll have to wait till next year to get some new things. There's a pretty table runner from Crate & Barrel that I'd like (for all seasons) and I'm envisioning a large glass hurricane or vase filled with blue and silver ornaments. In the meantime, I just pulled some red items from years past. It looks all right, I think.

Those are actually just beaded napkin rings collected in a pretty bowl.

The kids are loving all the new books we're opening each night.

We were sad when Grandma Verna had to rain check our cookie baking day (she had a funeral) and there wasn't really any other time before Christmas that we could do it. So we've decided we'll go to grandma's to make Valentine cookies instead. And in the meantime, Will and I decided to bake some cookies for Santa on our own. I found the perfect, fun recipe from Family fun for Candy Cane Cookies. So I made the dough up in advance last Friday night and stuck it in the fridge to chill.

Then I cut it into even pieces...

...and it was just like playing with play doh!

Will rolled them out into ropes...

...measured each rope to 8" long...

...twisted them together with help from me, and curved one end into a cane.

Please excuse my jammies and bed head.

So fun and so pretty!

All baked and cooled. Into the freezer they go until we need to pull them out for parties and Santa's plate on Christmas Eve.

Craig insisted that Santa would probably LOOOOVE chocolate chip cookies too, so I made up a big batch of Aunt Cathy's recipe and they are soooooo good.

Will helped me compose a letter to Santa:

And that night he said a special prayer for Santa after our bedtime prayers:

"And Lord, please help Santa not to fall off our roof." :)

Will and I also decided that we are going to read our bedtime books on the floor by the Christmas tree each night because it's just so cozy and pretty at night. We've especially enjoyed Mortimer's Christmas this year.

Just a few more days now! Hope you're all enjoying some merry festivities.