Christmas countdown day 10- wreck the malls this Christmas season

If you don't listen to Twisted Christmas carols, then the title today probably isn't funny to me. If you do, then maybe you are lucky enough to have heard this parody to "Deck the Halls". If not, try finding it. It always makes me laugh because I am not a huge fan of malls and the idea of running amok in them during the holiday season just strikes me as amusing.

What else strikes me as amusing is how much my hubby wants to "do" Santa with the kiddos but how much he is against all the "traditional" Santa activities. You know... like going to the mall and waiting for about a billion hours so you can sit your young child on a stranger's lap and have them tell said stranger all their deepest hearts' desires. Which is ok with me. I would rather scrap the whole Santa bit all together after raising one child with a huge Santa phobia. But I digress.....

This afternoon, after all our normal errands were done, we took Pickle, SweetPea and PorkChop to the fabled place called "the mall" to see the Christmas decorations. Since SweetPea is really into viewing right now, we thought that this would be a pretty cool experience. And what baby isn't reduced to a staring, drooling puddle when confronted with Christmas lights? Well... apparently my two littles.

SweetPea had more fun finding the "moving stairs" and begging us to allow her to go on them "just one more time". PorkChop loved the crowds and the attention that he was grabbing but as for the decorations, he was happier listening to the Christmas music than taking part in the bright colored lights and spinning trees.

We still have planned an evening drive to see the outdoor lights before Christmas is upon us. I am hoping that without the allure of elevators, escalators, and strangers that our two youngest will more enjoy themselves.

Christmas countdown day 4- stringing up the lights

I always looked forward to decorating the tree, as a young child, because there was something so magical about taking an ordinary looking tree and making it glow. Now that I am adult and creating my own traditions, I often long for the trees of my youth. The ones with tons of garland, glass ornaments, and icicles strewn everywhere. You see, one of our new traditions as a family is that the ornaments going onto our tree are all hand made by either the kiddos or myself. The only exception is the lights, because hubby is a glow-fiend.

I really don't know what happens to our ornaments at the end of each season but it seems like less and less survive. All the hard work that went into painting ceramic ornaments over the past few years are now hidden somewhere in the labrynth that we call a basement. A few have made it though... a candy cane reindeer that Peanut made in Daisy Scouts when she was still home schooled, a cd ornament that Punk made his first year in public school (fourth grade), the foam snowflake ornament that Peanut made especially for me last school year by adding penguins.

Tomorrow, SweetPea and I will be spending our morning making some salt ornaments to hang on the tree. I hope to do a decent amount up and then let all the kiddos paint them on Tuesday. Our little Charlie Brown tree seems so bare right now without all the colorful baubles that I would love to have on there. But at the same time, I know that my heart will sing when I add the ones done by my own children's hands.