A Simple Christmas

I had big grand dreams about how I would celebrate the holidays this year. I was trying to figure out the best way to display an activity Advent calendar, what activities to do and so many other plans. First, I decided that I was going to have Munchkin make a mailbox which I was planning on buying at Michael's. Then I couldn't find a mailbox, so I just got supplies to make the cards anyway to deal with our space issue.

Then I read Lora Lynn Fanning's letter to mamas of littles and I dropped almost all my plans. I still am doing activities with the boys, but it is much more informal. Neither boy can read yet, so the elaborate activity calendar was really just for me, and I don't need it. Munchkin is going to remember that he decorated a gingerbread house, not that he found out because I read him a perfectly coordinated card.

So I have a chocolate calendar for Munchkin (which he has been enjoying so far), the Santa's beard calendar and some crafts, stickers and coloring sheets to keep Munchkin occupied for the month. I got the Truth in the Tinsel with the printable ornaments to bring a bit of the religious aspect into the season, which I learned about from The Art of Simple's Advent plan (with a discount code).

But the most important thing to me this year is just being here with the boys. I don't want to be so busy that none of us enjoy this time of year, which really is amazing. And so I want to let them enjoy the season, and I want to enjoy them.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Our tree is up, and our "elf" decorated it last night. Peanut woke up first this morning, which was perfect for me, as I got to spend a few minutes letting him take in the tree before his brother got up. He was so happy and so excited. The pure joy on his face as he saw the lights and the ornaments for the first time. I wish that I was able to capture them on camera, but as I was holding him I wasn't able to. I hope that it is a look that I never forget, and a look that comes back each year. All he wanted to do was grab everything, which is why we have a small tabletop tree this year.

Munchkin was so excited to see what Jingle McJingles' Christmas magic had done. Our tree had been up for a week, bare as we waited for it to open. This morning Munchkin's face showed such amazement as he explored the tree, looking at all the different ornaments, many that he has seen before but none that he seemed to remember.

Mornings like these are one of the things that I absolutely love about Christmas, the innocence of childhood, the pure belief in magic and miracles. It was smiles and hugs, happiness and joy. It was perfect in its simplicity, and everything that I could wish for.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere: Rookie Mom Challenge

I know that I posted about it before, but I recently realized that I did complete another Rookie Mom Challenge (of which I have completed so very few). I don't ever remember going pumpkin picking as a child, so it is one tradition that I love doing with my children. Right now, they are still too young for these trips to really have a lasting impact, but I want them to grow up remembering. Every year I've taken pictures of Munchkin with pumpkins, but this year our usual trip just didn't work out for us that way. I am so glad that I was able to take them later to another pumpkin patch and get my pumpkin pictures with both boys, but especially with Peanut. Another challenge done (and done weeks ago).

Inside-Out: Rookie Mom Challenge

Over the weekend, Peanut reached 39 weeks 2 days, which means that he has now been an outside baby longer than he's been an inside baby. I am not throwing myself a party, as is the suggestion in the Rookie Mom Challenge. With the holidays and everything else going on right now it just doesn't make sense. But my husband and I did acknowledge the milestone.

Peanut, I can hardly believe that this day has come, nine months ago it seemed so far away, yet it has gone by in a flash. I love you more than you will ever know. And while I would love to freeze you in time and keep you my baby forever, I am very much looking forward to watching you grow.

Week End Reading - 24 Nov 13

Here are just a few of the things that I read this week.

I miss the days when Thanksgiving was a day to spend with family, not a day to shop for Christmas - If you shop on Thanksgiving, you are part of the problem

An interesting list - Wish We'd Known: 21 Things No One Told Us About Being A Stay-At-Home Mom

An interesting point of view on breastfeeding - Why the World Has a Screwed Up View on Breastfeeding (And Some Things We Can Do to Help)

Figuring Out Dinner

While I am still trying to figure out a workout that works for me, I have started to tackle the diet portion of my getting healthier plan. I don't think that it's a coincidence that I was my healthiest when I was diary- and soy-free from breastfeeding Munchkin when he had an allergy. I basically had to cut out all processed food and I ate lots of whole foods, fruits, vegetables. But as great as I felt, there were things that I missed, such as cheese, and even though I've said I was going to go back to the diary-free (or at least diary-lite) diet again, I haven't been able to commit.

I am no good at meal planning, we always seemed to have extra ingredients at that end of the week that we just ended up tossing, and I didn't like having to come up with meals that everyone liked. It always just seemed easier to go out which wasn't great for the diet or budget. So back in January, when Jill from Baby Rabies asked her Facebook followers for meal planning ideas, I was very quick to jump on a popular suggestion, The Fresh 20. I absolutely loved it. I was getting delicious recipes that were not hard to make, not wasting tons of food, money and time. We weren't eating the same things every night, and even Munchkin was trying new things. While it wasn't dairy-free, there wasn't a lot and often I could leave it out.

A few dinners I made from the Classic plan

Then at the end of February, Peanut was born. I thought that the plan would make it easy for my husband to take care of dinner while I took care of the new baby, but he decided that it made more sense to use a food delivery service for the first few months. It was nice to not have to deal with cooking, but it was a paleo service, not really budget friendly and not feeding Munchkin.

So it wasn't too long before I started back on cooking dinners again. Unfortunately, my husband had gotten used to a paleo lifestyle, and while The Fresh 20 is good, I wasn't always able to remove the dairy. So for a while, we had the same few meals over and over again. I was getting very tired of it, and started to research other meal plans when The Fresh 20 released their dairy-free plan. It isn't exactly paleo, but it really was what we needed. A few weeks ago I started using it, and it has been great. It is everything that I fell in love with back in the beginning of the year, just without the dairy. Bringing me one step closer to my goal of healthier living.

This is not a sponsored post, I use and love The Fresh 20, have purchased the Classic and Dairy-Free plans and recommend them to anyone who asks. Also, right now for subscribers they have a Thanksgiving plan that looks amazing. If I wasn't already going to my mother's to celebrate, I would probably be making this dinner.

Holiday Prep

The holidays are coming up so very quickly, and while I do respect the turkey and not actually decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, I need to start getting ready now. Thanksgiving this year is on the 28th, which means that December starts that Sunday and Advent with it. While I have to figure out a way to bring in the religious aspect of the holiday, there are a few calendars that I am interested in.

Growing up, we always had a chocolate calendar, and that is the first one that I've gotten this year. I'm not sure how well that one will go over as Munchkin seems to have gone off of chocolate since the chocolate bunny vomiting incident of Easter 2013, but we'll see how it goes.

Another calendar that I used last year is this Santa's beard printable. I only got as far at the 16th before pregnancy and a bad cold caused me to slack on just about everything I was doing, but for the first part of the month Munchkin really seemed to enjoy it.

My big Advent project last year was an activity calender that I threw together at the last minute. Recently, Rookie Mom Heather talked about her plan to create an activity based Advent calendar and it reminded me that I need to get started now so that I'm not just leaving daily notes like I did last year. I do not really have the space to use the same kind of wooden calendar as she does, so I need to figure out another way to make it work for us. I also need to finalize my list of activities. While there are quite a few printables and lists out there, I haven't found one that is perfect for us.

Finally, I love the idea of a book based Advent calendar which I recently read about on Delightful Children's Books. I'm not sure that I would be able to do a full month of books in addition to the rest of the stuff I hope to do, but maybe I can incorporate it into our activity calendar.

How do you prepare for the holiday season?