It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas!!

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone already! Over the weekend we got all of our Christmas decorations out. Now the house really looks and feels like Christmas!

Gabrielle was super excited about all the decorations. She decorated the tree pretty much by herself with the exception of a few fragile ornaments that we put on well out of reach. She really likes to group similar things so the ornaments are clustered together into little sections. We could re-do it to our liking but she had so much fun decorating who really cares if it may not be magazine worthy! She is absolutely dying to move the little snowman on the countdown wall hanging. There are 24 pockets so she'll just have to wait until Wednesday and then I'm sure she'll want to move him several places a day.



We are doing a couple new things this year. I mentioned in an earlier post the Advent paper chain we are doing. We got the chain made and hung on Saturday and started tearing open the links Sunday. On Sunday our activity was to make an Advent wreath and to "light" the first candle. We made the wreath, candles and flames out of paper. Gabrielle colored and glued the pieces and added a little glitter just to give it some sparkle. She pasted on the flame for the first candle and she'll paste a new flame on the appropriate candle each Sunday. I'm trying to explain to her the symbolism of the wreath and candle and to read some scripture with each Sunday. Even in the simplest terms she still doesn't quite get it but I figure it's never too early to start.


Today's activity from the Advent chain was to make a new ornament for the tree. My sister had given us a little kit to make a pom pom penguin ornament that we never got around to doing last year so we finally put the little guy together.

Samantha isn't quite as excited about the Christmas decorations as her sister. In fact she had the exact opposite reaction to the tree. While playing on the living room floor Saturday night she rolled onto the tree skirt. She immediately started crying and screaming and it wasn't the normal fussy kind of cry - she was genuinely scared! I picked her up and she grabbed onto me tighter than she ever has and only calmed down once I moved away from the tree. Every time I moved back toward the tree she would start to get upset! Today was better and I'm trying to get her used to the tree gradually. I certainly don't want her to be afraid of it for the next month!

The weather was so nice on Sunday. While Ed put up the garland, lights and bows on the porch I watched the girls play in the front yard. Gabrielle did a little roller skating but our driveway is covered with pinestraw which made it very difficult for her. Then she rode her tricycle for a little bit as well but she is still learning to pedal herself and she gets frustrated easily. Samantha chilled in the stroller most of the time and then rode in the cute little red car a little as well.

And can you believe this photo??? No one is holding onto her. She is just standing on her own, holding onto the kitchen set!! Of course Ed stood her up there but she still shouldn't be able to stand so well for so long at this age. We're still waiting for the crawling but she is getting closer and closer each day.

I can't believe tomorrow is December 1st! That means 2009 is almost over, Christmas will be here before we know it and Samantha is 7 months old!! My babies are growing up way too fast! Where does the time go? Seriously, I want to know!!