Motherhood has done nothing to curtail my procrastinating.
In college I always said that I had to wait until the last minute because journalists do not get the luxury of a generous timeline. Lies. I just like the drama of finishing something at the last minute. Or perhaps there is just something in my brain that is truly incapable of managing to complete a task without eking it out at the last minute. I have my theories, but we shall never know.
Wink.
Anyway, here is the rest of our festive alphabet fun, the quick rundown, a little late as per usual. I did not take photos of her letters past “T” because I just kept forgetting to, y’all. The excitement of Santa’s arrival was too much. You’re just going to have to trust me we wrote them, okay?
I love every one of these letters. These are her first attempts at each. Now she’s pretty flawless at “M,” so it’s fun to see her first try! “S” is still written as she has it here. We’ve been working on writing it with my hand over hers and it’s coming along slowly but surely. I’m so proud of this girl!!! By two and half, I bet she will be a pro.
Here’s what we ended up doing for our daily activities. Some are different than originally planned because, life.
Merry Christmas, and Haaaappy Hoooolidayyys. Yes we did dance to NSYNC. More importantly, we made cookies with friends. Pictured is E showing my sweet and wonderful goddaughter how to work Sophie the Giraffe. She was very serious in her description of exactly how to squeeze her to make the best squeak sound.
North Pole! We did not make a gingerbread house. Since there was a lot of baking the day before, I decided I didn’t want to make my kitchen messy again. Sometimes a mama’s gotta do what a mama’s gotta do. We instead stayed in our pajamas for far too long and watched the first two Santa Clause movies and talked about all of Santa’s friends at the North Pole.
O Christmas Tree. THIS WAS MY FAVORITE ACTIVITY!! We had so much fun making the Christmas tree together and putting the ornaments on over and over again. I had originally intended on using the hearts from the sorting activity from day “I” as ornaments, but my very particular toddler informed me that the hearts were for sorting and were not ornaments. So out came the felt and the scissors. I have photos of this day on my instagram, but if you’re reading this you’re probably already following me on instagram because we are real life friends and have probably already seen this.
Polar Express and pajama day was as fun as I anticipated. We have a Melissa and Doug train set that we got out and pretended it was going to the North Pole. I had really good intentions of making hot chocolate, but E wanted chocolate milk instead, so I just had yet another cup of coffee. Does anyone else cry at the end when he talks about growing up and everyone he knows not being able to hear the bell anymore??!?
Quilting day did happen (a couple of them in fact), but we did not make a baby doll quilt. E helped me with a quilt gift for my aunt for Christmas! In fact, I took this photo from her because I forgot to snap a picture. E likes to be the basting pin hander-outer and fabric stealer. She also likes to tie fabric around her shoulders and pretend she’s Daniel Tiger. Basically, she’s the best sewing companion.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It was her favorite of all the Christmas movies, and later she found a Clarice from Hobby Lobby that smells like chocolate. Why is this a toy? I don’t know. But E has never experienced anything more hilarious in her life than smelling this reindeer. I could hear her with her Daddy across the entire store cracking up and yelling, “It smells like chocolate!!!.” Clearly, she came home with us.
Snowflake Day! And scissors! E was introduced to scissors this holiday season, which will be a part of her preschool curriculum we are starting in January. We attempting snowflakes and she discovered a love of fringe. Check out these fine motor skills we are building! Hooray! We also watched Daniel Tiger’s Snowflake Day episode. E started acting a bit run down today.
T did not stand for “tidings,” but instead stood for “time to take naps.” It was well-spent, as my sweet girl was nursing a cold.
Up on the housetop. We did build block towers, and then we built paper towel forts and threw our snowballs at each other. E was still recovering from feeling sick. Spoiler alert: She felt better before Santa visited!
VERY SURPRISING VISITORS! My out-of-state parents came to town! (It was a good surprise, we love them a lot.) Our “v” day was definitely my favorite Christmas surprise! I wish I would have gotten a photo of E’s face when she saw them. I’ve never seen a smile so big!
Winding down. Since E was still recovering, from her illness, we practiced our letters on her magna-doodle and snuggled a lot. We ate Thai food and after E went to sleep, I got to be Santa for the first time, since E didn’t really care/realize what was going on last year and the year before. M and I watched my all-time favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard. A perfect Christmas Eve, observed.
X-mas morning at our house! E asked Santa for a pink robot (yeah, I have no idea where that came from either, so I ended up making one–pic on instagram) and a baby. She received both and was thrilled.
Yelling at the Cowboys game. There goes playoffs. Also, a beautiful Christmas Eve with my in-laws and Granny. E cracked us all up by asking each of us individually several times if we were done eating so she could open presents. It’s so hard to wait! Even when the food is delicious!
Zzzzz. Resting after a fantastic holiday season.
I hope yours was also merry and bright.
Seams and Strollers 