On my mind...

art credit http://chibird.com/

One week until CVs (resumes) get sent out! eeeek!

Elving...

 

Seems like the season is in full swing now...our decorations are up, including our advent calender for Felix (photo above). We picked up the little advent bags last year after Christmas for 50% off at Ikea...they are super cute and it is nice to be able to put what you want into them. We basically put a piece of chocolate into every bag except 6 of them....every fourth day there is a toy car (we bought a pack of 5 toy cars and divided them up) and on the 24th day there is a toy train (one that we originally were going to give him as a Christmas gift).

We kind of re-arranged some of his gifts around once we found out what my mom is getting him. We just don't want him to be overwhelmed and we also don't believe that Christmas should be about a crazy amount of gifts...some are fun, a ton is just silly. The nice thing is that Felix's birthday is at the end of January, so gifts can easily be "re-arranged".

From us he is getting two books (under the tree) and in his stocking he has a chocolate Santa, a Hello Kitty hair brush (he got Hello Kitty obsessed over Halloween from watching this video) & a couple of small wooden toys. My mom got him a little people firetruck & a car ramp thingie (also little people)...I am positive he will LOVE it all. He is still getting the same Santa gift on the 25th.

The December 6th St. Nicholas gift is still a boot filled with nuts, oranges & chocolate...we are just giving him one book now though, but added Thomas the Train pj's and a Thomas Christmas dvd. We stumbled upon the pj's and dvd and couldn't help ourselves. It is waaaay too easy to go overboard at Christmas! :)

We are pretty much done now though....just a few more cards to write...off to the post office next week to send away the cards and two parcels....just one more person left on the list...all should be done by December 1st....before the whirlwind of activity gets even crazier! :)

Our first week of December has us getting our tree, celebrating our first advent candle lighting (reading a Christmas story), a farmer's Christmas tractor parade, St.Nicholas day, a Christmas tree lighting with Santa & his reindeer, a date night/late night trip to the One of A kind Christmas Show (where I will try *really* hard not to spend too much money)...this is all packed between day to day life of working, school and chores... 'tis the season...and I love it! :)

The first official baking day of the season happened yesterday....chewy chocolate gingerbread...Christmas is officially here!

Preparing...

...on my mind...

Believe it or not, I actually started my Christmas card writing today. I try to send them away by December 1st...so I am not too crazy for starting now (I think?). This way, here and there, I write one or two cards (and address them...the always not so fun part) when I feel like it over the month of November and it wont seem like a pile of work. When the mood catches me, I have everything ready on my desk. 

Last month I made a big list for this year...categories of who gets just cards (friends that live far away), a gift & a card (immediate family only), and a tin of homemade cookies & a card (lots of friends and family). We keep gift giving to a minimum (for financial reasons and because that shouldn't be what it's all about). We exchange names for immediate family only and give gifts that way. For friends I make a pile of chocolate gingerbread cookies, put them in colourful tins with a card and deliver those. The last couple of years I also started making homemade caramels for friends as well. It has become a tradition of sort, that I think people enjoy...who doesn't like cookies? ;)

Do you do something similar? Or something completely different?