4 More Sleeps!

Jingle was up this morning with a little gift for Madison, a Hello Kitty message board.  On the board was written "Only '4' more sleeps 'till Christmas!!!"  That's right, it's almost here - and we haven't really had a chance to absorb the moment yet.  No moment's peace, where you sit down and sigh and have that little Christmas song in your head as you look at lights or whatever.  Sure, there have been a few traditions along the way, from "The Gift" to a quick ride around the neighborhood.  But we missed out on quite a few other traditions this year, and didn't get an opportunity to do anything drastically new.  Nevertheless, it certainly hasn't been a terrible Christmas season.  It's just a busy one, with play practices and the writing of this book, now hopefully complete.

We were a bit tired after church, but we did get one of these together - check it out!

You are looking at one of the most intense gingerbread men there is.  He's SO excited about Christmas.  Either that, or he's SO OBSESSED with YOU.  Either way, it's slightly unsettling.  He sits nearby the entrance of the house, sort of staring visitors down a bit.  Visitors usually blink first.

As for the house, that is a join effort between the three of us.  It was a kit, of course.  But nevertheless, it turned out pretty well, with Madison doing quite a bit more work on it this year.  We love how much she's expressing herself creatively.  Additionally, there weren't any huge construction problems along the way - we stuck to the blueprints, found some extra candy from her personal stash, and finished this rather nicely.  It's a pretty decent ginger bread house!  The thing stayed up pretty well, and is still standing strong as this is being typed.

Church this morning was the final message of our series dedicated to the Nativity set.  We placed the baby Jesus there, and suddenly we have a large and complete Nativity set on stage.  Large is putting it mildly.  The thing is very big with all the pieces in place.  But the point of course was made, as we were celebrating the birthday of Jesus.  We also did a bit of decorating with a game called "Deck the Volunteers."  Of course, we didn't punch them.  We put a star on their heads, and made them into Christmas trees - different teams were tasked with decorating each tree in the quickest amount of time.  It was great fun!

We got home, and did our ginger bread houses.  But we also did quite a bit of Christmas movie binge-watching.  We had a fire in the fireplace, the perfect thing for this kind of day - grey and dreary.  The three of us snuggled on the couch, shared some popcorn, and did a tiny bit of resting.

Only four more sleeps until Christmas.  It might be more wet than white, but Christmas is still a welcome sight!