'tis the season

The boy bounced out of bed this morning and wanted immediately to put up his "transformer" tree. So once I had opened my eyes and become vertical, I made my way to the (very cold) garage and rummaged around on the top shelf until I found said tree. Into the house it came and the boy did a Tigger bouncing impression until I untied the string and shook out the branches. So far, it is devoid of decorations except for a large, red, felt star atop it as I haven't found the rest of the tree decorations. I did find wreaths and stockings and door hangers - all of which are now dotted around the house. And the two advent calenders are up and the new one is a big hit, containing as it does, small pockets for daily treats.

At 10 AM, the boy bounced again, this time to announce it was time to go and see Santa. So we got dressed and organized and off we went to my work Kid's Christmas party. As our boy's been going since he was a baby, he knows the drill. His shoes were off almost before he made it into the party room and he was inside the bouncy castle. Once he'd bounced around there for a bit, it was time to zoom off to decorate his gingerbread man. I managed to get him in the face painting line where he was adorned with a truck and a tree prior to his eating his gingerbread. And then it was back to the bouncy castle. Occasionally he would run back to me and have a sip of apple juice or a nibble but then would race off again. Then it was time for Santa - the kids all lined up and sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and in came Santa. Our boy was terribly excited and waited fairly patiently for his turn with his list and Santa's gift in hand. He told me a couple of days ago that he wanted to bring Santa a present and he decided that Santa's present was 4 chocolate chip cookies ( bar cookies I made the other night from here). Santa received the cookies with delight - saying chocolate chip are his favorite - and our boy and Santa had a chat about listening to mummy and daddy and having a good Christmas and then it was present time. Our boy was the lucky recipient of a Bumblebee transformer and he and a new pal spent quite a bit of time playing with both the car versions and the robot versions before it was time to come home.

So I guess it is time for me to kick start myself into the season. Cookie baking, present wrapping, cards and parties. I do love it all, I just have to pace myself. And on that note, to all a good night!

a "transformer" tree

Last Christmas, T got his very own tree from his Auntie K. It's a little artificial tree that folds up and lives in a high corner of the garage. D got it down the other night and I started pulling down the branches while T watched. "Cool" he said, "a transformer tree!"

Last year I hung candy canes, paper chains and a popcorn garland on it - this year I hung a hand ornament T made in preschool

another preschool ornament (a balloon covered with wool and glitter)

and a couple of candy canes and for the rest I was inspired by this post over at makegrowgather.com. We have glitter snowball elves or santas hanging on most of our doorknobs so I thought a smaller version would be great on a tree. And I was right. T's tree is all about homemade charm and I think these are charming. Of course, our house is now covered in bits of wool and felt - T ran around with the small balls of leftover wool I was using to make the pompoms. I'm also making candy canes out of some pipe cleaners and later T and I will go down to the dollar store and find some toy cars or trucks to string up as well. 

 (an aligator as requested by T!)