Preparing for Christmas

The advent calendar is up and looks great! Love having a husband that is good with his hands. He found a spare piece of wood in our storage room, sanded it down, painted it red and attached the little gold hooks. It turned out perfect. What do you think?

taken with my iPad, will post a better one soon.

Sometimes when I am feeling a little down, I head over to Scary Mommy Confessions for a giggle. The other day someone posted some advice about Christmas gifts and what they do with her family. They give:

Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. That’s what my kiddos get for Christmas. And Santa fills up their stocking.

I love this. Growing up our family had a few difficult financial years mixed in with the comfortable years. Looking back now, my fondest memories of Christmas are of those years when my parents were going through hard financial times.

When there wasn’t a lot of extra money, my parents became creative with their gift giving. My favorite memory was having to go on scavenger hunts for our gifts. Santa even sent us out into the snow to go look for clues. We had loads of laughs as we each searched the house, high and low for clues and gifts. Sometimes the gifts were hid right under our own beds!

As time went by and things got better, the gifts under the tree multiplied and I (as I won’t speak for my siblings and can probably reassure you that they will all say I am the only spoiled one) became more spoiled, Christmas wasn’t as exciting. I was never satisfied by what I found there. It’s no fault of my parents, they tried to give me everything I wanted. Yet I twisted that around and in turn only wanted more and more.

I never want the magic of Christmas to fade from Ava because I have spoiled her. So as a new tradition, within our little family, we will now only receive something we want, something we need, something to wear and something to read. Now, if Santa wants to spoil the little angel in her stocking, that’s his prerogative.

Sunday we plan on decorating the house for Christmas. A bit nervous about the tree as Ava is pulling up on everything now and I would hate for it to fall over on her. Johan will have to take extra precautions on securing it to the wall. So excited to see her little face lit up by the lights.

I also plan on making a wreath this weekend from our Rosemary bush. I found this idea on Pinterest, of course. Gorgeous and will smell yummy.

via All About You

My Crafts I’ll Never Do board is getting smaller, as my Pinterest Items Done is gradually filling up! Yay for me. There are three pins so far, but it’s a start!

If I had a million dollars (because everything in SA is so freakishly expensive) or realistically, lived in the US, these are the items Ava would be getting for Christmas from Mommy and Daddy.

Ava doesn’t know it yet, but she wants this pram (stroller):