Full of Holiday Cheer Over Here!

Friday we had our classroom parties at school.  The teachers in my hallway all wore Christmas sweaters and I felt compelled for Carter to join in on the fun.  So he went off to daycare dressed in his elf jammies and looked so adorable!  Our classroom party was so much fun.  The room parents plan the parties and we just help manage the crowd.  They had the movie "The Polar Express" on while students wrapped the Christmas presents they had made for their parents and then came around with hot chocolate and cookies.  It was very laid back and enjoyable.

When I picked Carter up from daycare I was surprised by an adorable gift bag he had decorated with handmade presents inside.  They had made ornaments with fingerprints turned into reindeer, a hot chocolate mix for Santa with fabric over the top decorated by Carter's handprint decorated as Santa, and reindeer food.  It was all so cute!

My work Christmas party was Friday evening at 5:00.  I picked Carter up a little after 4:00 and debated what to do for that short period of time.  I knew if I headed home I'd only have time to unpack my car and play for 10 minutes or less before leaving again.  I was so excited when I came up with the idea to go to the aquarium which was only a few minutes away.  We went to the aquarium and walked around for 30 minutes before heading out for the party.  I took Carter to the party with me and then Ty stopped by on his way home from work to pick him up.  Carter got lots of attention and love in the 20 minutes he was there.  The hostess made a photo booth area like we had at Carter's birthday party equipped with holiday-themed props.  I was a little hesitant to go to the party because I didn't want to be away from Carter, but I was so glad I went.  It was a blast and I had lots of fun and snuggle time with Carter at the aquarium which made me not miss him quite as much.

The message on my cup cracked me up, "If you've been naughty, we want details!"

Yesterday we had an ice storm which covered every blade of grass with ice and resulted in a down power line in our backyard and branches across my brother's driveway, blocking him from getting his car out of the garage.  Ty was more than happy to layer up in clothes and head over to Jeremy's house with his hand saw.  Carter and I stayed at home, read Christmas books, played with his new birthday toys, and then I held Carter during his nap because every time I laid him down he sat up in his crib and cried.  I figured I have a short few snuggle naps left and I'm going to enjoy them while I still can. 

Jeremy's driveway.

Our backyard.

While Carter played I started wrapping his Christmas presents.  One of the perks of him being so young is that he has no idea.  We've actually read all of the books I got him for Christmas because I was so excited when they arrived (I ordered them from a Scholastic book order at his daycare).  At Carter's birthday party I noticed he had a hard time ripping wrapping paper, but had no trouble with tissue paper so I decided to wrap his Christmas presents in tissue paper.  I used tissue paper from presents my students gave me.  Even though Carter won't know the difference, I used 4 layers of tissue paper on each present to make sure he can't see through the paper.  I'm hoping Carter enjoys opening his presents and doesn't get too distracted trying to eat tissue paper.  We'll see how that goes!

Playing with his chair from Great Aunt Tina.

 

We also had fun going through the presents I received from my students.  I felt so loved with all the cookies, candy, gift cards, and homemade gifts I received.  Although I feel loved every day as I get sweet hugs and smiles.  Carter loved a scarf I was given that had sparkles in the yarn.  Ty put the scarf on Harper and she wore it for quite a while.  One student gave me a cute canister filled with cookies.  It had the message "Write on Me" on the side because it worked as a dry erase board.  I laughed so hard when I walked into the room to see Ty had written "no" on the canister. 

Wearing my scarf.

Ty's contradiction since he did in fact write on the canister.

Today I finally decorated our Christmas tree.  We have 4 Christmas containers, 2 of which we could get to and 2 we couldn't.  Ty dug out the other 2 containers for me today and one of the containers had our ornaments in it.  We have 3 different star toppers for our tree and neither of us like any of them.  I came up with the idea to have Carter decorate a star topper for our tree every year.  We'll date the stars and keep them year after year.  When he gets older and no longer thinks it's cool to make tree toppers, we can pull out old ones to decorate and reminisce.  I'm pretty excited to start the tradition tomorrow!  I'm also excited for my parents and brother to arrive tomorrow.  We are going to visit the Christmas lights again since Thomas didn't get to see them last time.  We also plan to drive by a house where they've set their Christmas lights to music and have 8 songs worth of music and light displays to go with it!!!!

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season as much as we are!