As I sit down to write this entry, we are in the thick of Christmas preparations. Our house decorations are up, inside and out; Christmas cards have just been mailed. I am making quick online purchases whenever both of my kids go down for a nap (Amazon gets the bulk of our business - just can't beat the huge selection and free shipping!). We have egg nog in the fridge and the car radio is tuned to 93.9 FM, the 24/7 Christmas music station. What a fun time of year! And beyond all this, the season is made even more magical now that Cassidy is old enough 
to get into the holiday spirit. We taught her about Santa and his reindeer, and about how this is a celebration for Baby Jesus. She even got to see a real reindeer with Daddy when they went on an adventure to our local nursery/landscape center (they keep one on site for the month of December!). One of her favorite activities is driving around the neighborhood in the evenings to see all the Christmas lights. The only problem is that we need to go late enough in the evening for people to have their lights on, but then it's so close to Gavin's bedtime that he passes out in the car before he's had his last bottle of the day (without those last 8 ounces, we'd probably have a rough night). So I think from now on those car trips will be special outings for Daddy and Cassidy, so that I can stay home and get Gavin tucked into bed!
Our days have been extra busy the past few weeks as we juggle the normal routine plus all the fun Christmastime activities. The kids' schedules sometimes get a little goofed up when we're on the go, and it was the cutest thing the other night when Erik and I looked over and saw Gavin, passed out asleep in his jumperoo. He had only been in there a couple of minutes, and he started out jumping away like he always does. Then Erik and I realized it had gotten really quiet (Erik was watching a basketball game on TV and I was catching up on e-mail, both just a few feet away). It was a sweet moment to capture!
We had our first snowfall of the season last week, and Cassidy was
beyond thrilled. The first morning that we woke up to snow, she took one look out the window and was ready to put on snow boots and build a snowman at 6:15am. I convinced her to have breakfast first, but I think we had our little snowman, "Grass" as she named him, built before 8 in the morning. We only had 2 inches of snow to work with, but we did our best! Our neighbor saw us and came out (chuckling) to say good morning.Less than 2 weeks until Christmas! We are enjoying the season and can't wait for all the celebrating to begin.
