Merry & Bright Looking at Lights

I'm not exaggerating when I say we have been super busy since Halloween. I don't think we've had a weekend without plans since then. It's all good stuff and I'm very grateful to have friends and family who want to see us. I love school, library and city Christmas events. I'm beyond ecstatic to be able to pet and babysit all my awesome little buddies. We've had so much fun! It's really been great! In fact, loving all these events and opportunities is the problem. I'm finally "up to it" and I want to do them ALL! There aren't enough days in the month for it.

I just didn't realize how fast the pace had been or for how long. This week we finally had a day that was just us. It was nice. There was still lots to do and Riley was still on the mend from her cold, but it was nice to slow down. I had been bummed Riley missed her cookie party, but everyone got to decorate cookies anyway. I was also disappointed we didn't get to go to the Grinch event at the library. I've been trying to get us there for 3 years, but something always comes up. So really we have no idea what we're missing. I was so worried about missing something I even wrote "light looking" on our jammed December calender.

Something came up on the day I picked so we decided to do it tonight. I'm glad we waited because everything was up and wonderful. Even random neighborhoods we cut through to get to our favorite displays had great stuff. Interesting stuff like the house with several different kinds of birds or the large inflatable Christmas monkey! It was a nice "chill pill" for me. There was no need to keep pushing myself or fret about "missing" things, Christmas is here. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve, it'll all be over in a jingle or two. I'm so grateful for the memories and to start slowing down! Merry Almost Christmas!

Wild Wonderland

We went to the night time holiday festivities at the zoo this year, merriment ensued.

Blessings: Living Social deals, living close to the zoo, kids filled with holiday spirit, and I'm especially blessed to have good friends to spend an evening with!

Decking the Rest

All the decorations made their appearance a little on the early side this year. Mike couldn't find the tree lights so he pulled everything out of the shed looking for them. It's hard to tell a four year old who hasn't seen her sparkly pink tree in a year that now that it's out of storage we have to put it away again. That just won't fly. We had to replace the lights on her tree because they were stored with the batteries still in, but Dad found her a sting of purple only mini lights. Pretty snazzy.

After her tree was decorated I dug out the pieces to her Christmas village and we set them up next to it. She built that sleigh at a Lowes workshop last year. Did you notice the my little ponies pulling the sleigh? So Riley! Isaac put up a his little green tree and his multicolored lights were still working. I even found him a green tree skirt that I decorated with gold glitter snow flakes.

We got in the mood with Christmas music and some festive head gear. Most of the inside stuff has a set spot so my job was pretty easy.

Mike put up my winter pond scene with a little help from Riley. All our friends returned even my peacock. Although, the tail lights er...lights on the tail feathers gave us trouble for a few days. I observed a handful of times how much more I was seeing that peacock sell for (more than double what I paid). I started joking that maybe I got a deal because ours was for one time use. In the end Mike got it straightened out. Our mom and baby deer were joined by an animated daddy deer. He drinks from the pond. We had to expand the pond this year actually. Our collection of animals grew I suppose.

Ta-da!

Christmas Light Looking

I LOVE Christmas lights! Some of my fondest memories of being a single gal in a big city are of driving through affluent neighborhoods (to get to or from work) at night and seeing all those gorgeous lights. Being lost is almost fun in December. Every year in early(ish) December we take the kids out to see the more impressive displays.

Unfortunately, a toddler was "helping" me carry my camera to the car so it never made it. Cell phone pictures don't do it justice, but a few turned out not-so-terrible. We hit the botanical gardens first. They have live performers and a suggested donation of $2 to walk through their lights. We went as soon as it got dark and hightailed out when the crowds started pouring in for the show.

Botanical Gardens

Candy Cane Lane

This is just a neighborhood in our area with a lot of Christmas spirit. They've decked out their yards since I was a kid. Ever since our first Christmas together we make it a point to go every year.

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

The bleeding stopped, but I'm taking it easy(ish) just in case. We've got a lot of holiday happenings coming up and I don't want to miss out. It's hard not to push it when the pain starts letting up. There's nothing like a little Christmas to keep your spirits up. Here is Miss Roo's fancy pink tree with the princess tree skirt Grandma brought over. Perfect accessory. I added the purple butterfly tree topper which was the topper on my first ever grown-up Christmas tree. It's been collecting dust in favor of the beautiful light up star Mike's had since childhood. It belongs on a little pink tree, for sure. Grandma also scored Mickey and Minnie animated Christmas figures. Roo was over the moon about those.

Yesterday, to cheer me up my friend let me open my present early. I got Disney Monopoly! Can't wait to play with the kids. It's shaping up to be a very Disney Christmas around here and that's okay with me.

We got our outside lights up too. We added a peacock to my winter pondscape. It sounds random, but it looks beautiful.