Oh This Time of The Year...

2 weeks till Christmas. Can you believe it? Only 2 weeks. Where has the time gone? I feel so terrible as a mom this time of year. I have been so stressed over preschool, presents, money, making traditions etc. that I haven't spent enough time explaining and enjoying this time with my kids. Don't get me wrong, having my kids has definitely helped out, but I sometimes wish I could just sit and enjoy the season- make goodies with my kids to give to families, make gingerbread houses, make cards etc. But I feel like my time is so crunched and flying by. I find myself worrying more about the presents I'm getting the kids, and figuring out how much we can afford and be realistic that I stop thinking about what they really need which is just the memories.

I am trying however to find those moments to spend with my kids. They are growing up, and I want to make sure they do enjoy these times, and have fond memories of their childhood. The other day, I put down my preschool stuff, didn't clean, didn't really do anything, but focus on my kids for the day and it was such a different, special day. I don't do that enough. Here I teach preschool, teach all the other kids how to write their letters, write their names etc. and don't do it with my own kids. Tuesday I took several hours with Cambree and sat and laughed and enjoyed showing her how her name was spelled and worked on how to write it and I was amazed at her enthusiasm for it and joy of doing it. She even learned how to read and write mom and dad too. All in just a couple hours. Made me feel like a real heal of a parent for not doing this more often. Later Ridge and Cambree helped me make some chocolate chip cookies. Again, they loved doing every second of it. Memories!!

Several nights we've gone out as a family to look at Christmas lights around the valley. This is the first year that both Cambree and Ridge understand the whole Christmas idea. They talk about Santa all the time and their presents and LOVE all the lights. Every night Cambree has to turn on our lights and then double check to make sure they look ok. I love that!! I just hope I can slow down and take this all in.

Last Saturday I took the kids to see Santa which was the first time this year for them and I was blown away by how excited they both were. Ridge jumped right up on his lap and just smiled away. Cambree started listing off what she wanted "a castle and new princess phone"- mind you this changes daily so I doubt Santa could even keep up with her list :) and Ridge wanted candy- surprise, surprise.

These are some pictures that I had to take for preschool and they go with something else, but because they are gifts for parents I won't divulge that information at this time to make sure none of my parents figure it out. :) But thought they turned out super cute.

Then I have been decorated for Christmas since the day after Thanksgiving, but again have been too busy to blog about it, but its not too late :) So here is our little house all decorated. The kids really helped this year which was fun. We don't have a full sized tree this year because of the lack of space so we jsut have a little table top tree but the kids don't care. They still love it. Cambree turns on the lights every morning. We didn't put up half of our stuff this year from lack of space but it still looks festive.

Then lastly this is our stockings for preschool. Really fun project that they each did and they loved the glitter names.

Hopefully sometime soon, I'll post our Christmas card and a little Christmas letter update for those that are interested :) Merry Christmas!!