Santa Prep

Christmas this year has been the talk of our house since early November. Gretchen could not wait for us to decorate and was constantly telling us which decorations we should get for the house. She loves all things inflatable or light up, or really anything at all Christmas related.

The issue is that we gave away the majority of our Christmas decorations before leaving Argentina, between the lack of storage space and the bulk of garland, we were happy to give our things a new home. This meant that, as with most things this year, we were starting anew. 

We made the decision to start slow, this year we would buy a tree (artificial, for the mess-averse, allergy-riddled folks that we are) and build additional Christmas items in the years to come. Luckily, this decision coincided with the opening of a new Costco in our area, which had the best price on a pre-lit tree, so we spent Costco's opening day working to beat the rush and buy a tree.

But first, we need to crawl on and off the owl chair.

Then we made it to Costco and found our perfect tree. Which didn't fit in the trunk of my car. So we left the box at the store and shoved the branches into every possible crevice of my car. Gretchen thought it was the best thing that could have happened.

Without a box, the tree went up immediately in our living room. The kids could not keep their hands off of it.

They were enthralled.

It was pretty wonderful to see the joy and amazement in our two little snowflakes. 

And this combination created a rare agreeable photo opportunity. I was in my happy place. 

Such innocence, preparing for Christmas is so much fun, even with the bottom third of the tree empty.

Last stop, Santa Claus's lap. This precious Santa was at our local HEB and was great with our kids. The store had a post-Santa make your own snowman cupcake station, so that was a huge hit with a certain little sweet-tooth. 

Santa prep complete. Bring on Christmas!