It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

I absolutely Love this time of year. All of the preparations for Christmas make me so happy. And when you have 2 little ones to share this season with, it's that much better. We've been busy shopping, crafting, decorating, and taking it all in. Isla and Leo start each morning out by running to the musical advent calendar we have and opening the days' door to unveil a treat they get to eat. They then go on a hunt for "Cauliflower", the elf on the shelf. Isla named him the first day he visited the Halman house and loves discovering his new hiding place each day.


We even had a beach day in December last week. Isla thought it was great to be able to dig in the sand with her clothes on. I liked not bringing back buckets of sand to the car like we usually do when the sand sticks to their wet summer beach bodies.
The Beaches Museum had a little Christmas festival that we made it up to. Isla was sick, so it wasn't the best time, but there were lollipops, facepainting, and it got us in the Christmas spirit.

Does anyone know when children start to like Santa? Isla will only stand next to him and Leo clearly isn't in to the big jolly old man.


We also stopped by John's office for a surprise visit and to say Hi to Daddy and play around the cubicles.

And the swing sessions continue...

On to one of my favorite Christmas traditions...picking out the tree and decorating it. The family and Coach and Gigi all met at Coaches Tree lot where we made the men open up about 10 trees before finding the perfect one. It really is the best tree we've had.

Isla even found her perfect sized tree but we opted to just get the huge one.

Back at home it was time to bathe, pajama up, and then place all the shiny and sentimental ornaments up on the tree.

Leo runs to the bathroom smiling when Daddy says, "It's bathtime, Leo." He loves it.

Decorating the tree with my Babe, two babies (and one on the way), and Michael Buble singing Christmas carols might be the best date night of all.

The finished product:

Hoping you are having yourself a Merry Little Christmas as well!!!!!