Christmas, Christmas Time is Here...

I love Christmas. I love the lights, the songs, the smells, the festive feeling in the air. I even love the crowded parking lots and hustle and bustle of stores, and the fact that we're going to be so busy for the entire month of December that we probably really won't have time to breathe. I love the tradition we started as a family a few years ago - we go to the early church service on Christmas Eve, then we go out to a nice restaurant for dinner (the one time of the year we even attempt to do a dress-up dinner out with the kids!)

Most of all, I really love watching my kids on Christmas morning. I remember the wonderment and magic of Christmas morning when I was a kid, and Greg and I are doing our best to recreate it for Owen and Mariana. My dad was great at setting the scene for Christmas morning - he used to make us wait at the top of the stairs while he went down to 'Make sure Santa came'. Really, he was turning on the lights on the tree and playing carols on the stereo, so everything would look perfect when we came down. My brother and I were in high school and college and we'd be sitting at the top of the stairs like two little kids, anxiously awaiting permission to come down :) This is definitely something I'm passing on to my kids. I want their memories of Christmas morning to be as warm and fuzzy and magical as mine.

Just to put you in the mood, I'll share a few of the pictures we had taken of Owen and Mariana at Kiddie Kandids earlier this week. They turned out so cute, and I just don't believe how big my kids are getting. Aren't I supposed to have two little babies still?

We're leaving early tomorrow morning for a week in sunny Florida! We're going to stay with Greg's dad and his wife, and do an early Christmas with the kids, plus we get to hang out with Jess, Dylan and Morgan while we're there (yay!!) Then we have Hart and Melissa's Latkapalooza the day after we get back, Owen's birthday party, Heather and Chris's Open House and Heather's cookie exchange the following weekend, then its pretty much Christmas! Did I mention how much I love this time of year?