'Tis the season...

You might say I've been remiss in my blogging lately, and in my list-accomplishing, and in my changing out of sweatpants, etc., etc., etc. The truth is that having two kids is really kicking my butt, and I haven't even gone back to work yet. I worked so hard to have these few months off with my kids, and one of the things I desired most was to be able to relax and truly enjoy the holidays. I'm really trying, but life right now seems to be one big lesson in reality vs. expectations. What I pictured was a clean house, a freezer full of meals I'd have all fall to stock up on, a family day getting and decorating the Christmas tree, Bennett falling asleep to a CD of Christmas music each night with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head, matching pajamas and stockings for the girls, etc. Reality, however, is that my house is a constant mess (sometimes I think I would give my left arm to have a toy room or a craft room or just another ROOM for all this stuff), Bennett has a double ear infection and strep throat and will currently eat only popsicles, she finds the Disney Christmas CD to be "scary," we have so little time in the evening that we've been trying for 5 days and have only accomplished getting the tree and putting lights on it (who needs ornaments?), no children's clothing manufacturer seems to make matching PJs for a 3-month-old and a 3-year-old for a reasonable sum, and my homemade stockings are looking a little janky (but that's another blog post).

One thing I really wanted to do this year was to create an advent calendar for Bennett. There are so many cute ones available that look like trains or gingerbread houses, but I really have no place to put one and I really have no place to store one. Plus, if you know my daughter you know she would clean that thing out the first day and demand a refill. So I settled on using our banister to create one. I just wish I had a better camera to show pictures of it. I just strung a wired ribbon around the banister and attached with ribbon 24 circles I cut out of Christmas-themed scrapbook paper and punched holes through. On the front of each circle I wrote the number for the date and on the back I wrote the surprise or activity for the day. You know, like "pick up all your toys," "get a flu shot," "give mommy a back rub," etc. All right, I'm not that horrible of a parent. There are fun things on there like going to the indoor water park for her birthday and I also have several Christmas books I ordered through her preschool and Scholastic Book Club (so cheap!) that I am excited to give her. Now if we could only get around to decorating that tree...