Christmastime

Christmastime at our house has begun.  Rachel was counting down the days until December 1st, when Rudy, our elf on the shelf, would make his appearance (she really thinks he flew here that night from the North Pole--it's going to be one sad day when she finds out that he actually spends the rest of the year packed away in the basement....), and she could start opening the little doors on the Advent Calendar. 

We got out our Christmas stuff and decorated the tree over the weekend.

 

 

Rebecca loves it.  I gave them their new ornaments that day (she got a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse balloon ornament and Rachel got a Merida ornament--the princess in the movie Brave), and made the mistake of wrapping them, so they got to unwrap them (which Rebecca also loved!).  Then my husband put some presents (for me!) under the tree, and she asks every day (several times a day) if she can open them.  She doesn't yet understand that there's a separate day for that--she already got to open a present, so why can't we keep opening the other presents, too? 

I usually love putting up the tree, because I get the chance to relive the memories attached to each ornament, but this year it was rather stressful.  Both girls kept grabbing into the boxes to get another ornament, and, of course, weren't careful.  Three ornaments were broken.  After multiple warnings, I finally had to make them sit down and just watch, which wasn't much fun for any of us, but I couldn't keep letting ornaments get broken.  Finally I started unwrapping them and they were allowed to hang them up (it was the unwrapping that usually caused the breakage, so I just did that part).  That was an okay compromise.