It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Well...here's the ol' Essary Christmas tree. I wish I could show pictures of the decorating in progress but....yep, my camera battery was dead (again). Blake totally gets into the tree decorating. He always puts "his" ornaments (tool boxes, cars, motorcycles, lawn mower, tools, etc.) front and center. They never stay there though. Whenever he isn't looking the girls move them to a less visible spot. The three of them battle it out every year. It's pretty darn funny!

Every year on December 1st we start the countdown to Christmas. Each morning the girls have a surprise waiting for them. The little mittens are attached with numbered clothes pins. Once the girls get their surprise, they turn the clothes pin for that day over. Today they each got a pack of bubble gum and tomorrow they each get a dollar (shhh...they don't know yet). They don't always get "things". There may be a note that reads "watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn", "dance to Christmas music in your underwear" (I haven't used this one the past couple years since they are getting a little old for that.), "make and decorate cookies", "make hot cocoa and play board games", "eat a candy cane while mom reads a Christmas story", "dinner at McDonalds", etc.. I found the mitten garland online but I started with 12 pair of kids Christmas socks hung on twine. I usually hang the garland on the mantle but this bench needed a little holiday lovin' too! It's a fun tradition for the girls. (I stole the idea from the Family Fun magazine several years ago.)

I spared you the misery of looking at every single Christmas decoration in my house but I am going to share a few. I made a trip to Real Deals a couple weeks ago to do some Christmas shopping. Guess what? The only person I ended up buying for was...(drum roll please)...me. I know it's pretty shocking. I had so much fun! I need to go back because I ditched a bunch of my Christmas decorations this year. I'm ready for some new "stuff". I told Michele about my "Christmas" shopping so she said "Hey...post them on your blog!" So here goes:

I love the rusty bells on this wreath! The J-O-Y blocks matched so I had to buy them.

I love the barn stars with a little bling. The picture doesn't show it too well but they are a sparkly pearl. The sign matched so of course I had to buy it too!

These little trees are kind of hard to see but they are sooooo cute. They are wire with little bells hanging from the ends. It was absolutely necessary that I didn't buy just one...but four.