It's that time of year...

So I want to be honest and state that Christmas is really not my favorite holiday. However I am learning to appreciate more and more about this over commercialized date. I realized one of the biggest reasons I don't get to excited about Christmas is because I am OCD. I want it all, and I want it all done right! You know pretty and fun with carols in the background while I do it:) But since that is just a dream and not life I am learning to make the most of what I can have. I didn't even want a dumb tree this year how Scrooge McDuck was that! Yet my husband the perpetual postive one was insistent on the whole tree experience right down to chopping it down with hand saw! I know I will look back on the pictures of that day with delight, so why do I fight it going in?

I want my children to have as many happy memories of the holiday as I have to I strive to do all the "fun" things I can think of. One of them being this years "Advent Box". This is a pretty box that I am using to help the kids count down the last two weeks till Christmas. Every morning there is some little activity, craft, or candy in the box to help us stay focused on being a family this season. Yesterday's box held little mugs, hot cocoa packets, christmas shaped marshmallows, and cookies so we could have a hot cocoa party. Today we decorated foam chrismas trees with foam sticker ornaments. I also have dragged out all the Christmas books I have been collecting since before the kids were born, I almost have enough to read a different Christmas story every night till the actual date. We put up what little decor I haven't tossed in my efforts to have as little as possible to move around the country. Overall we aren't doing anything monumental or life changing this season. What we are doing is making the most of a holiday that celebrates the birth of something that was life changing!