Christmas Preparations

November 30th. One last day of November and then it's DECEMBER DECEMBER DECEMBER!

We used this past Sunday to start some preliminary holiday decorating, but of course there's still more to do. 

Sunday evening we pulled our tree down from the attic (artificial ... no shame) along with all of the ornaments. I made a cup of hot cocoa and poured a few sips of it into a paper cup and let it cool down for Camille. Her very first hot chocolate. We told her she had a very special task to do; put the first ornament on the tree. I gave her a homemade ornament from when she was in daycare -- she was just around 6/7 months. 

(I had some questions about her jammies. They are Hartstrings and we

got them secondhand. But I found some on Amazon if you're looking

for similar ones ... girls plaid jammies HERE and HERE 

and a cute pair for toddler boys HERE)

After that she went to bed, Ian and I poured a glass of red wine and finished up the tree. My tree is unabashedly FABULOUS. Like, colored lights, feathers everywhere, frou-frou fabulous. It's not a stale, white-lights, all silver ball ornaments tree, oh no no no.  Poor Ian. 

I came downstairs last night with some feather garland that I found and he said dryly "OH YEAH I was just thinking our tree needed more stuff on it" ... haha! He secretly loves it. I know it. 

OOOH! Garland question for you. Does anyone use fresh garland on their staircase? Does it shed like crazy? Or not too bad? Let me know.

Lastly, someone posted this image on a moms Facebook group I'm in and I took a screenshot of it, because I want to do this with the girls! It's from the blog Coffee Cups and Crayons. 

Here's my challenge to you ... because I know that sometimes committing to a full calendar of tasks can be somewhat difficult. Pick FOUR days/acts that you want to do (even if they are small and easy). Write them down on a sticky note like this:

2 - Pick up litter

6 - Make a hug coupon for someone

12 - Call a faraway friend or relative to say hello

24 - Do a secret act of kindness for someone

Put that sticky somewhere you'll see it like at your coffeemaker or on your car dashboard. AND I'm asking you to write down four that you can commit to in the comments section. I think it will be interesting to see everyones' committments, and it will hold us all accountable!