The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I am getting excited for Christmas, that's for sure. I've been having a lot of fun scheming and planning and decorating and shopping and wrapping...I've got all sorts of things floating around up there.

I hope they all come to fruition.

My kids, of course, have the Christmas itch too. A couple of years ago, my SIL, Shari, shared her marvelous idea to give each child a reindeer name. When the presents get wrapped and put under the tree, names like Dasher, Cupid, Rudolph, Blitzen and Prancer appear instead of the real names of my angels. It's awesome that there's no more counting gifts, questions about why someone has more than the other. No more snooping, shaking, or guessing. Just lots of wondering and hoping...I love it.

On Christmas morning, we let the kids try and guess which reindeer they are, which adds to the fun. Easton is convinced he is Rudolph this year. With Christmas CD's being played on the blue boom box pretty much every hour of the day, Easton gets excited every time Rudolph gets mentioned in a song. He knows which CD showcases that song first, so he plays it over and over and over, telling me, "Mom! Listen! They're gonna say my reindeer name!" So funny.

Barrett tried to convince me that she had "ways" of figuring out which reindeer belonged to which kid. But then I blew her theory out of the water when I told her that our reindeer have middle names too. She gave me the wide eyed look of disbelief. Priceless. Since Afton was successful in guessing her name last year, she too is convinced that she already knows who she is. We'll just see about that...

So I was looking through some of my 2005 scrapbook layouts just for fun, and I found this spread highlighting Christmas. Our kiddos were so small! I loved re-reading my journaling from 4 years ago.

(double click to see it larger)