Ready Or Not – Christmas is Coming

I feel so unprepared for Christmas this year. The month of December went by in a blink. Thanksgiving came and went and then we went to Disney World. Scott had National Guard the weekend after vacation and then I left for a business trip on Monday. By the time I returned December was half over and we had the tree and only the tree.

That next weekend I set-up the little Christmas tree and some of the other fun inside decorations. Eventually the Christmas train was up next to the tree and the village was under the tree. The children spent hours playing with the train and the village and it started to feel a little bit like Christmas.

I usually take vacation time to bake and wrap presents but work has been too busy so I stayed up later than I should on many occasions. I finally baked some cookies this weekend so there are a few tasty treats.

Ruslan woke up with a fever Friday morning and Wyatt joined the fever club that night. Morning came early this weekend with Wyatt bursting into my room crying because he couldn’t stop coughing. Fortunately they are both on the mend.

We still don’t have any outside decorations and that won’t happen at this point. There are more presents to wrap…hopefully that will be crossed off the list tonight.

Today I decided that we were going to the mall to see Santa; it’s something that we do every year and I didn’t want to skip it. I wasn’t thrilled about it since I had to take Juliana, Ruslan and Wyatt by myself, but they appeared to be in a good mood and I thought we needed to get out of the house anyway. They were all very well behaved in line and as soon as it was time they walked over to Santa and waited for me to help them get situated. A few quick camera clicks and we were done. They thanked Santa and I prepared to pay for my photo. As I walked up to the counter, a woman standing there told me she was from the mall office and they were doing random acts of kindness today and they paid for my photo! That was a very nice surprise!

The kids rode the train and then I took them to Giggles and Smiles so they could run and jump and be wild for a little while. I checked them in and before I turned around they were already in a bouncey house. I walked around the mall…alone…and picked up a few small things. I returned 45 minutes later feeling relaxed after my stroll and the kids were ready to go. We found an empty bench and they ate the pretzels that I purchased on my way to get them. I knew that “I’m hungry” would be the first words I would hear. It was a nice outing with them and I’m happy that I made the time.

Here is this year’s Santa picture and the previous few years – including the amazing 2010 picture.