1. I am a firm “no Christmas until after Thanksgiving” kind of girl. As a matter of fact, one of my very favorite days is Chrismasday, the Sunday after Thanksgiving where we fill our home with the Christmas spirit. This year, it has seemed especially hard to wait. Maybe it’s Baby Gray’s excitement, maybe it’s just me. I’m holding out, though. I’m a rule follower that way. When do you put your decorations up?
2. I love New York–a lot. I haven’t been since Baby Gray was born. We considered going to the tree lighting (something I have always wanted to do) for my thirtieth birthday. We decided on California instead. I stand by our decision. Then… I found the tree lighting on my calendar last week as I was planning. Saturday morning, I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out if I should try to pull off a trip to New York still. Mr. Gray talked me out of it; I reasoned that he had already bought the tickets as a surprise and didn’t want to be double-booked.
3. I have had a few people ask about my Elf on the Shelf thoughts. Here you go–click here and find out. (You can also click on the Elf on the Shelf tab in any post to get to more ideas.)
4. We have bought a few gifts for some programs that help kids in need, and I always love how into it Baby Gray gets. He loves to give–it melts my heart! He put together some Operation Chrismas Child boxes with Annie, and he couldn’t stop talking about it!
5. Have you seen the new version of Baby, It’s Cold Outside? The cutest! That’s one of my very favorite Christmas songs, and this rendition did not disappoint!
6. We haven’t decided if we are going to try to cut down a Christmas tree this year or not–on one hand, I can’t imagine a second year without a fresh tree (remember how Mr. Gray was so ill last year?), but on the other hand, I can’t imagine fitting a tree in here with us! I think we might do a very small one. Do you cut down your Christmas tree?
7. Word on the street is that the Rockettes were in Houston. I couldn’t let myself go (or even look anything up about it) because that would put me back in the New York predicament mentioned above. I think my love for that city is unhealthy!
8. I need to get to wrapping our Christmas books for December! The boy loves unwrapping a book each day, and I love that we don’t get stuck on one book for the whole month!
9. Speaking of pajamas, a week or so ago, we were out getting some new winter clothes for Baby Gray because he had outgrown pretty much all of his. He found some Christmas pajamas he wanted so badly, but they were only in toddler sizes, so none fit him. He cried for a minute, then softly said, “Then can I get the Santa jammers for E?” Ummm… Absolutely! What a sweet, sweet heart that if he couldn’t have them he wanted them for his friend.
10. I hate that we sort of rush Thanksgiving out of the way to get ready for Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for, and even though we try to keep the focus on giving and what is really important around the Christmas season, it’s sometimes easy to get caught up in that trap. I’m so grateful for my Savior, my husband and son, a loving and supportive family, friends I can say anything to and be myself with, and so much more. There is so much to be thankful for!
Beautiful post! We're trying hard not to rush Thanksgiving away, but it's so late this year that I don't want the Christmas season to be too short.
My girls loved the video–thanks for sharing!