first ohio christmas prep

one of the things that was really important to me when we started discussing this move, was to have us all settled in, with a tree, by christmas.  i wanted to make sure that the kids had as normal a christmas as possible.  we didn't want to unpack all of our christmas decorations, so i got the stockings and tree skirt out before we left and the kids and i have been working on homemade ornaments to decorate our tree and fill our days. 

our tree is a smallish, fake tree (we have a large fake tree that we normally would put up) and, as madelyn and daddy out-voted me, it has "rainbow-colored" lights on it and looks lovely.  so far we have made fruit loop 'candy canes' and wreaths with pipe cleaners, paper gingerbread men, paper chain link, a star tree topper, and a paper plate/traced hand wreath.  we are still going to make snowflakes and possibly some angels.  it is still a work in progress but it is really starting to look nice and very festive.  madelyn loves showing daddy what we added each day when he gets home from work.

i have been pleased with how willing mason has been to join in on the crafts with us.  his favorite part is coloring and he wouldn't let me trace his hand for a wreath, but he is getting pretty good with a glue stick.

our tree topper has a two-sided star; madelyn did the red star side and mason did the green star.

i put together a little slide show of our preparations for your viewing pleasure.

and here is madelyn telling a little about one of our crafts.

the tree has also really amped up the excitement in the house about christmas.  madelyn has even made up her own santa song and dance.  the video is dark (we don't have a ton of lighting in the apartment yet) but you can see madelyn and mason singing and running around.  mason tried to join in on the "oh yeah" part.  i just love that madelyn felt that the song needed some "oh yeahs".  and less you think we have forgotten the true meaning of christmas, i went in to check on the noise coming from their room at nap time and madelyn had her sheets wrapped over her head and mason was sitting next to her in bed.  she told me that she was being mary and mason was being joseph.  madelyn then told me that she had baby jesus in her belly and he was going to be born for christmas.  how cute is that?  i really should have gotten a picture because she was cute in her polka-dot sheet only responding when i called her "mary".  here is the video of their song and dance.  love.