countdown to christmas - december 1

o.m.gosh! it's DECEMBER.

when you're a kid, christmas seems to take forever to get here.

when you're the grown up it's quite the opposite.

there are soooo many things i love about christmas. and every year that goes by, we layer another memory into the mix. i looooove decking the halls and making everything festive. everything is kept really simple and i've really stripped away anything that doesn't have special meaning. so it doesn't TAKE LONG but it's just such a special time with the kids.

one of my most favorite things to do is get out the ornaments...we've got a VERY broad range of ornaments on our tree...but each one has special meaning and represents something.

(before you scroll down any further, the perfectionist in me DOES need to put a disclaimer that it's annual tradition that austin and i get the tree set up and now that the kids are all old enough, THEY do all the placement of the ornaments...including attaching any hooks to the ornaments that need them...there...i said it...). you can continue reading.

the other night, jordan's friend addie was here with us and hudson was proudly showing her all of our holiday decor.

as a mother, i'd like to say that his 'tour' of our holiday home warmed my heart. i'd be lying. instead it warmed my FACE. he sees the world through a different lens. but then again, most guys do, right?

so here is my countdown to christmas, day one. a look around the house through hudson's eyes:

1. BATMAN..."checking out BARBIE" (who appears to be hanging by a green noose????).

2. an unidentified NBA (is that the right thing to call a pro baseball dude??? whatever...he's one of the famous guys) aiming a baseball right at jordan's gymnast bear. let's see how well she can keep her balance on the beam with a fast pitch headed straight for her.

3. the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. at first glance you'll see that (obviously) they are cowboy boots. but they have hidden messages in the designs that none of us had ever noticed. that is til hudson...


4. jordan's stocking is the 'girly' one with the flowers. to us, it's just western stitching. to hudson it's puppy dog eyes, a nose and the vertical brown design separates the dog's eyes from his long floppy ears. can you see this? it took me a bit at first. but the NEXT stocking...well...i saw it right away and i'll NEVER see the stocking the same again.

5. what? it's just a cute snowman stocking boot, right? WRONG. look again. it's a 'brown' lady wearing a low cut dress.

ROFLMBO. poor carson. his stocking will never EVER be seen the same again. it is forever after the 'christmas cleavage' stocking.

burlesque anyone?

on that note, i'm signing off to go read the bible to my kid. pray for him. pray for me. i seriously don't know how i'm going to survive the adolescent years with these two crazy young'uns. the first two were NOT cut from the same cloth as the second two. LOL.