Office Christmas Tree

Above is Madison's Christmas first tree drawing - isn't it great? She did this all by herself this afternoon as she visited the office. Mommy and Madison came by for lunch, and Daddy wanted to get a picture of another tree: the office Christmas tree.

Some of the gals got together for a group shot, all the while we were hearing Christmas tunes like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and more. It's been quite a festive atmosphere around here, despite the fact that we're working really hard towards this weekend's new series. Still, it was a great break to have Madison drop by. She was drawing Christmas trees for everyone, and giving free hugs too. She's a natural when it comes to this time of year - she knows how to make spirits bright!

When at home, Mommy and she did something fun: they made links. The two made one red link, one green, one red, one green - and so on. They made a chain that was twenty-four links long, and numbered each one. THEN they attached the end of the links (that's link #1) to a star. Here's the explanation: like an advent calendar, each link represents a day in December. Each morning, Madison will take a link off the chain, and the number that remains tells us how many sleeps 'til Christmas. In case you don't recognize the phrase "sleeps 'til Christmas," it dates back a ways - but we know it best from the "Muppet Christmas Carol." There's a song in the movie with that phrase in it, and we've found that it is an easy way to measure time around here. Rather than say, it's "three weeks away," it's more fun to say, "Christmas is twenty-four sleeps away." Madison is learning a little math in all this too: she's pretty good at one through twelve, but past that, it becomes a little fuzzy math. What better way to learn to count higher than by measuring how many sleeps 'til Christmas? She looks at us and uses her hands to gesture ten, and then she does it again, and then she holds up a hand one more time with four fingers up. That's 10 + 10 + 4. Basic addition there: 10 + 10 + 4 = 24 days until Christmas.

Another way to measure the sleeps 'til Christmas: new this year is our advent gift idea. Last year, we did well with the advent calendar book. Like any other advent calendar, it has small doors to open for each day, and behind each door is a character or object from the Nativity story.

Nana actually got Madison an advent calendar too this year - behind each door is also a piece of candy!

But that's not all. Mommy has been quietly assembling an army of tiny gifts to open each day. These are small items, including quite a few that actually came from Disney World a few weeks ago. As each day goes by, we'll have a new gift magically under the tree!

Of course, all this leads up to the big day itself: Christmas. There'll be quite a bit under the tree this year, I suspect. Daddy and Mommy have been talking with Santa, because Madison has been very good this year.

Every day in December is going to be magical!