We Need a Little Christmas

I am loving the Christmas season at our house so far. It's so fun having a one year old and watching him experience everything for the first time. Well, it's really his second but I'm not sure you remember much from when you are just a couple months old. Maybe that's for the best...

Anyway, I waited about 2 days after getting home from Thanksgiving to deck the halls at the Brunson home. Pretty much just as long as it took me to clean the place up before adorning it. I did wait until Saturday and Sunday to get the tree up and the banister garland strung because I wanted Jacob's help.

Isaac is loving all the Christmas decoration, but for the most part they are out of his reach. We did let him help a little with the Christmas tree ornaments. He LOVED it. I was tying some ribbon on some bells for our annual semi-homemade ornament this year and Isaac was taking them to the tree to hang them as best he could. I was sitting at the dining room table and Jacob was in the organ room with the tree. (We usually put the tree in the living room but the organ room is blocked off from Isaac and newly painted red so it looks pretty awesome there. And I don't have to worry about constantly chasing a toddler away from it.) Isaac would take the bells in both hand and run as fast as his little legs could carry him into the organ room. He would then hold his hands out to the tree and try to hang the bells. Jacob had to help. Then Jacob would tell Isaac to go get another bell from me and he would race back to the table and start all over. It was adorable. You can see in the picture below one hand is trying to hang an ornament with another bell in the other hand.

Isaac is also super excited about the lights on the houses and especially loves our neighbor's house across the street. They have some lighted things in the front yard too. One night after shopping Jacob got him out of the car and set him down in the garage. The next thing we know Isaac is heading down the driveway and to the neighbor's house. So we walked him across the street and let him look at the lights and even touch one of the lights on the bush. He was beaming. So fun!

I have a couple of Christmas countdowns going that Isaac gets to participate in. He doesn't really get any of them but he loves to help out just the same. One is a puzzle of the manger scene with some scriptures to read daily. He likes to pick out the puzzle piece and help me tape it in place on the paper. The other countdown is just a decoration where you change the numbers. But when I point to it and ask if he wants to help, he smiles real big and comes a runnin'. Even if he is in the midst of a meltdown. He likes to take it off the mantle and put it back up after I've changed the numbers.

He also likes his new Christmas church outfit that he wore for the first time last week. Funny sidenote: There are several babies right around Isaac's age in the ward. And at least 3 of them also have this outfit.

Another of Isaac's favorite things to do, take off socks and then attempt to put them back on. Just look at that concentration.

And for some reason he loves to lead Jacob around the room. Usually he doesn't even have a destination but he'll grab Jacob's hand and walk him in circles. He is seriously getting a kick out of it.

And just for good measure here are some photos of the Christmas decorations in our home this year.

I made all these stockings last year when Isaac was still very young. I'll probably always look at these stockings and remember both the sense of accomplishment and frustration I had while working on them. They are really quite simple but took FOREVER! (the stockings were bought and then I cut out the designs and backed them with felt. The names are felt cutouts glued and then stitched on for cuteness). Jacob would come home from work and I would announce either how amazed I was at how much I was able to get done (meaning Isaac had slept well and not in my arms) or how frustrated I was in my lack of progress (meaning I held Isaac most of the day). I remember days where Isaac would fall asleep and I'd set him down in the swing and start to work only to have him begin crying again 5 minutes later. Man newborns are hard! And adorable. And I might even miss it and maybe want another soonish...oh man!

And this is a pretty lousy picture but I realized I didn't really have a good one of the tree. Oh well!

Bring on Christmas! I'm ready!

Mostly.