A New Tradition

Somehow, Ben found the time to put our Christmas tree together on Thanksgiving morning so that we could spend Friday hanging ornaments. Last year we all hung out in our jammies that Friday morning after Thanksgiving, hanging ornaments and I just loved this- I totally planned to this again! First I had to get over some stresses (lights, kids, fresh air needed- see other post) to do this...but that morning (before all the stressful stuff) I did find a new love, a new twist on an old tradition of ours- we gave the kids their new ornaments first thing after we got up that morning. I absolutely LOVED how this worked out- it was such a fun moment, I think I'll cherish this moment on that day forever!

The old tradition was that we always gave the kids each a new ornament (all wrapped up) on Christmas Eve (even before kids, Ben and I exchanged ornaments on this night, too), but I felt that was getting lost in all the holiday buzz and Santa preparation and anticipation, so I came up with our new twist- I decided that this year the kids would get their new ornaments the day we decorated our tree, so that the new ornaments could be the first ones on the tree and this would really kick off the Christmas season in our house since these were the the first presents the kids would open (of course they immediately wanted more to open and were dismayed to learn they'd have to wait about 24 days!). Like I said, I loved how this turned out. The kids were so sweet and so excited. They really gave this all their attention and were very excited about what they got. My heart just warmed right up and things felt super festive and fun in that moment.

I think is a new tradition that we'll keep!

And then my daughter made our tree skirt (not yet spread out under the tree) into a blanket, thinking (correctly) that she was so cute and clever!

Oh and you'll notice Daniel shared his Mater pajamas with Annabel- I never thought I'd see this day, really- Daniel sharing clothes with Annabel, but she does love McQueen and Mater! It started because I gave Annabel a pair of Cars pajamas that Daniel had really outgrown (like, a while ago, I stalled in giving them to Annabel because I knew how he'd react!), to his immediate dismay (put those back in my drawer next time!) though he's since learned to deal with it, and well, Annabel wore them right away of course, so now they're in the laundry. You see where this is going right? She wanted to wear them again and couldn't find them. I told her they needed to be washed first. She was utterly stricken, just shocked really- you should have seen her face- heaven forbid I wash these awesome jammies! She didn't even speak- she was literally taken aback. And Daniel, in such a wonderful (dare I say rare?!) moment of sweetness and kindness that I'll never forget, saved the day (night?) and said, "Annabel, you can borrow my Mater pajamas!" Which of course delighted my little girl to no end!!! (And now I'm noticing he wore his other McQueen pajamas, so they sort of match. Unintended cuteness!)