christmas is coming

I just have to brag for a minute. I'm so proud of myself this year. I was determined to have things all ready (or at least mostly) for Christmas before Thanksgiving. And I did it! I had all but 1-2 things all bought and ready to be wrapped. The things I have left are minor, mostly stocking stuffers. It feels so great. I love to do the wrapping, so I'll start doing a couple things each night after the kids are in bed. We've got our tree up, our decor all our and arranged, and yesterday I filled up our advent calendar with fun activities for every day until Christmas. I'm so excited. I feel like now I can really soak in the season and just enjoy it. I plan to do all my food shopping this week as well, so I'll only have to make quick trips to the store for fresh items and/or milk, but not much else. I'm really looking forward to this Christmas!
I opted to put activities in our advent calendar rather than treats. We all know we have plenty of treats this time of year. It took a bit more time and will require a little work, but it will be so worth it come Christmas day. The anticipation and all the fun activities and traditions are what make this time of year so fun for the boys. I ordered a couple new books and a Muppet Christmas Carol on-line, so those are three of our activities. I think the boys will really enjoy it this year. Some of our other activities are: make paper snowflakes, decorate gingerbread houses, do service, go to temple square, drink hot chocolate by the christmas tree, make christmas cards for someone special, play a board game, read the bible Christmas story, make sugar cookies.... to name a few. I also planned it out on my calendar so that I know ahead of time what our activity will be so I can plan for it.

Bring on Christmas!! I'm so excited. I love my family and this time of year. Now, if it would only snow......

......I never thought I would say I miss Cleveland's snow!!!