It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The Christmas season is in full swing at our house! Having a child during the holidays makes everything better. Mae is just loving all of the lights and ornaments. We even put a little 4 foot tree in her room and she put all of the ornaments on it. She was so proud! Last year we decided that we would forgo the real tree this year and buy an artificial tree. Fast forward to this year and Ashton pretends like that conversation never took place. I gave in and had him go pick out a tree for us. I was pleasantly surprised when he brought home this beautiful tree. I like it for now, but once those needles start hitting the ground...it's all over! In the meantime, I'm going to love it!

I learned a valuable lesson this week. Mae asked to have her cousins over to play on Thursday evening. They came over and during their visit we decided to hang our outdoor lights. We had the blinds open on all the windows so that we could watch them play as we worked outside. At some point, the two youngest made their way to the Christmas tree and opened 4 gifts. My 8 year old niece came out to tell me. Silly little girls are just so excited about the gifts! I'm just happy that the gifts they opened were not theirs!

So far, Mae has asked on a daily basis "When is Santa coming??" When I tell her, this has been followed by "Okay" and also tears on occasion. We are doing the Advent calendar as a countdown, and I also made a countdown craft to help put it in perspective for her. We planned on visiting Santa this weekend, but we didn't get around to it. I've been asking Mae what she wants Santa to bring her. She first says "Toys!" then I ask "What kind of toys" and she replies "Purple ones!" The innocence of children is so refreshing!

We were lucky to get some snow flurries earlier this week. Ashton and Mae enjoyed the snowfall before heading to school! I'm hoping that we get some snow this year. There is nothing more fun in Texas than a snow or ice day. I just love to sled!

This weekend my family had a staycation. We all spent the weekend at our parent's house and enjoyed holiday cheer together. We also ventured out to Holiday in the Park. It was nice and cold out there on Saturday, but we all survived! Nothing beats being with family.