December Daily - Christmas Eve

Here it is! The days we've been preparing and planing for! Santa Claus is coming to town tonight and my son couldn't be more excited or anxious! This year he decided to ask Santa for two gifts and he's probably wondering if he'll bring both of them. Christopher wants a Lego City Garage and the Lego City Construction Site. Oh to be a child on Christmas eve! I was never able to sleep thinking about Santa coming and what would be under the tree in the morning. As an adult I can sleep most of the night, but I still find I'm a bit restless anticipating the excitement of the next day!

Here's the annual gingerbread house my son and I made yesterday. I think it's the best one we've done so far. This year we decided to decorate all the gingerbread pieces before we assembled the house which made it much easier to place the candies on and to pipe the frosting. Christopher picked this house design with the mint leaf gum drops sliced in slivers and added to the house door and roof ledge as pine decor. Turned out quite cute.

Thank you once again for dropping by my blog today and throughout December. It's been fun sharing the month with you! Have a very Merry Christmas! Hope all your dreams come true! :) Kathy

The First Day of December

It's here, the first day of December! What a whirlwind of a day too! Dan-O took the day off so we could take care of a little business this morning and then play Santa and shop for Christopher. The Lego store got the bucks this year! After a couple hours of shopping we were quite hungry and headed over to P.F. Chang's for a bite. Then it was time for me to get a little eyebrow treatment, make a hair appointment and head over to Archiver's for a few scrapbooking supplies. Whew! By this time is was about 4:00 p.m. so we headed back home to meet Christopher as he got off the school bus.

December first in the Martin household is an important day for Christopher since he gets to open the first drawer of our Advent calendar. Ever since his first Christmas, at six months of age, we've loaded this little wooden chest of drawers with goodies. It's the only month of the year that Christopher bounds out of bed and down the stairs to see what's in the drawer! We used to tuck little ornaments and money in addition to candy in the drawers, but discovered early on that chocolate was the prefered find! Here's a picture of the candy wrappers shortly after Christopher checked the drawer!

Today I also got a Christmas present, quite by accident! When Dan and I returned from our shopping excursion we found a rather large box at the front door. Dan and I both looked at each other and said, "I didn't order anything, did you?" The box was addressed to me so I assumed that I either ordered something and forgot about it or perhaps a family member sent us a gift. So I opened the box to find that it was a gift for me from Dan-O himself! It's my first piece from the Department 56 Christmas Village I wished to start collecting this year! Surprise! So we set it up and it's so very pretty! Thanks Dan!

Well, that's our first day of December. I hope you will join me each day for a look into the events leading up to Christmas. I'd like to share some crafts, recipes, our decorated home, family traditions and events we participate in during the holidays. :)