O Christmas Tree

Boy oh boy, Do I love the holidays!

I love the decorations, the snow, the Christmas cards (mine due out next week hopefully!) and everything about it. I had off Monday from work, so I dug out all the Christmas decorations and the kids helped me decorate. Emma was so excited about it, she could barely contain herself. She was running from place to place tossing things here, decorating there, it was fun to watch. It literally looked like a snowman puked in here or something because I had stuff all over. I love watching her think about things. She placed a garland of fake white/silver berries on a door handle. Why, not so sure, but she thought it was lovely. Emma overloaded my entry way table with 3 snowmen, a decorated house, pine boughs, Christmas boxy thing, and a family picture. Take my word for it, the table is not that big :-)

Evan busied himself with the stockings. We have 7 stockings in our house that must be hung and for the two little ones, the manner in which they are hung is very important. (if you are doing the math in your head, yes, we have one for Sage. It is an old one that I had in my cute little apartment in St. Paul. So, no, I didn't buy it. The kids just thought it would be good for Sage) Anyway, as I am watching Emma skip from place to place, leaving glitter and pine cones in her wake, Evan has dragged the bathroom step stool all the way to the fireplace so he can busy himself with the stockings. He probably arranged those for an hour. it didn't help that Emma kept coming over to him and moving things around. She felt that her stocking always needed to be front and center.

I did not put up my Christmas village this year. I really like it and miss it actually, but with the craziness of life right now coupled with the fact that my Halloween village people mysteriously lost 2 heads this year, I thought it was best to leave it until next year.

Otherwise, we are good, healthy, and happy. We got our tree tonight which was a lot of fun! We thought it best for tonight - or the calm before the storm- to buy it. we will see if the forecast is accurate. I hope so! I want to wake up to tons of snow so I can make hot chocolate and decorate our Christmas tree with the kids. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it?! Anyway, we buy our tree local in Lake Elmo and of course, it is always a production. The tree farm is very nice and caters to the suburban family. Walking paths among the Christmas trees, a cozy fire to warm rosy cheeks, sleds for the kids,a tee pee, a warming house filled with apple cider and smiles, and of course, the damn expensive Christmas tree. It is pretty and smells great. I love having a real Christmas tree, but man! they are expensive. The kids love it and agree on it and it is sitting in my living room screaming for decorations!

We got it in the house and my little Mr. Fix-It had to help Tim center it in the stand. He got down really low and was turning the metal prongs. "I help Daddy. I do it!" and borrowing Tim's gloves to help with the branches. Emma was sitting on the staircase writing the plan for how to bring the tree in the house and where to put it. She takes after her Mama - a project manager already!

So - I am looking forward to this weekend.

News - Evan is being potty trained and doing really awesome actually. I created his potty chart on Monday and he already has 13 stickers on it! He was dry all day today and is really good at telling us when he needs to use the potty. Granted, it takes him maybe 10 minutes for the whole thing, but I am loving it! I bought some pull-ups yesterday I may pull out soon. He is getting so big and feels really proud of himself I think.

Notable quotes:
Emma has been involved (and jealous) of the whole Evan being potty trained as he is getting a lot of attention the past few days. So, she was in the bathroom with Tim and Evan once and looked at Tim and said "wow, it must really hurt when he poops out of that thing" Lovely, right?! We are trying to make the bathroom a private spot for the kids, but it is hard when it seriously takes Evan so long now PLUS, he thinks he has to go potty every hour. I spend a lot of time in the bathroom now.

A few weeks ago I was at a cousins birthday party. I was holding my little cousin Jaycee and Evan didn't want any part of that. He was trying to climb on my lap, trying to get Jaycee to move and then he finally looked at my Mom and proclaimed, "Take Her!" so he could reclaim his spot on my lap.

I do have some pictures, but don't feel like posting them at the moment.

that's all for my midnight ramblings tonight. Here's wishing for snow!