christmas!

LOVE this picture of Rose!  She had SO much fun decorating the tree!

There is something about it just being the month of December that has left me homesick for the "normal" of the Christmas season.  I miss actually going Christmas shopping with my family instead of trying to pick things out online.  I miss hearing Christmas music on the radio and driving around looking at all the beautiful and yet tacky lights.  And I feel like I should be spending my Saturday's baking all sorts of Christmas goodies with my sisters and nieces.  Instead, though I'm living in the Caribbean where it's still sunny and in the 90's absolutely every day.  While not having cold weather and snow is a BIG blessing it just doesn't help it to feel like Christmas.    

I decided that this year it would be fun to decorate my house with the kids and to do some things that would hopefully help it to feel a little more like Christmas.  There was this part of me that was SO excited to do some of the "normal" Christmas activities with my littles.  Decorating the Christmas tree with Rose and Chilanda was so much fun.  Rose spent a lot of time looking over each and every bulb before placing them all in the exact same spot on the tree.  Chilanda and I both tried to show her how she could make the tree beautiful by placing them all over the tree but Rose just wasn't convinced that we knew what we were talking about=)  In my mind I thought it would be super cute to get a picture of all my kids with the decorated tree.  Instead of getting that picture though it's been a constant battle to keep the bulbs on the tree and keep track of who's turn it is to turn the tree lights on and off.  I also thought it would be fun to make a Christmas treat with them and yet the kids really just wanted to eat hot dogs instead.

Many of the moments I had pictured have been filled with a lot more chaos than I ever envisioned and yet they have also been filled with lots of laughter and really big smiles.  The first thing they do when they run into the house is turn off the regular lights so they can plug in the little tree and then turn on the other two strands of Christmas lights.  They then proceed to turn them all on and off at least a hundred times because it is just that amazing seeing them all light up.  The decorative Santa now has a braided beard and actually hasn't been able to just be decorative at all.  They have had so much fun playing with that Santa and it has been so sweet listening to them talk all about his jacket, shoes, and hat.  And even though I'm craving Christmas candies, I don't mind making them hot dogs because I know just how much they love them.  It still hasn't felt quite like a "normal" Christmas and yet it has been a lot of fun creating new memories with all my little friends.  

Santa before he got his beard braided=)