A Little Christmas

Well, it's December...again. We left Okinawa last December, so it feels like we just did this, but here it is again. I sound like I'm being very Scroogey about it, but really I love Christmastime and I'm ready to run with it. Here are a few Christmas-y things we've done recently.
Here Matthew decorates his sticker advent calendar. We made these last year too...nice and easy for toddlers.

Anna decorates hers too...and the table. She liked putting a sticker on her calendar every night and then taking it off again...so we aren't making much progress on hers.

Also in the advent calendar vein, we are doing this one this year. Each night they get to choose and unwrap a Christmas book and then we read it. We only have a half dozen or so Christmas books, and I threw in anything about snow or winter and got the total up to 13. I think I'm going to have to scour the library for stand-in books this year. I'm planning to build up to more Christmas books and then pack them away for the next year. The kids LOVE picking a present to unwrap each night...and every night when they open the wrapping, Matthew exclaims with surprise, "It's a book!" I guess he hasn't caught on that they are all going to be books.

Here we are at a little Christmas party on base. The kids got to ride around in this super exciting train. See how thrilled they are?

And Matthew rode this swing ride all by himself and wasn't scared! Every time he came around he would shout to Scott and I, "It's kind of like a merry-go-round!"

Matthew with a big Christmas toy soldier, or something.

Seeing the actual tree lighting. It was actually a little bit cold that night which made it seem a bit more festive.

The kids check out a giant snow globe. Matthew is big enough this year to be excited about Christmas, so it makes things a little more exciting for all of us. Happy December everyone.
And, if you're interested, see our family list of Things to do in December and

Christmas craft ideas I collected last year...I want to get around to some of these...we'll see.