Decorating With a Toddler

Decorating the Christmas tree with a toddler is basically like taking them to a toy store. The first picture was about three minutes after we opened the box of decorations.  Kian was loving it!  I gave him several of our non-breakable decorations and boxes and let him play while I hung all of our glass ornaments. Then he helped me hang a couple and I have no idea how the glass bulb that we dropped  did not break but it is magically still hanging on our tree. 

Before we hung any of our decorations we put up a felt Christmas tree that Kian could decorate and un-decorate as much as he wants. He LOVES it.  His favorite thing is to take all the decorations off, scrunch them up in his hand, and run around the house. Our Christmas season has started off perfectly!

Christmas Tree Farm

We made the trek out to Rhonda & Chris' Treeland after Thanksgiving.  We went there last year when Kian was only two months old and so itty bitty.  On the drive out we were talking about how small he was and how we had to worry about him sleeping, and getting hungry (since we were still feeding on demand) and how this year we had to make sure we didn't lose him because he's just so fast now.

As much as I miss that itty bitty tiny baby, this year was so fun! He was able to run around and help us pick out a tree and ride in the wagon. I absolutely adore this stage with him and I can not wait for Christmas!

PS we made another video, which we are putting together now and will up here and on our youtube channel soon!

Kian's First Christmas

Some Christmas Photos

We didn't really do Christmas cards this year, just sent a few cards with some photos out to family.  But, I still wanted to have some Christmas photos of Kian for his memory book and to look back on.  We ended up doing trying to do these photos two nights in a row and it was a struggle. He didn't want to stay still, and the camera kept focusing on the wrong area.  I still think they turned out okay and I know that years from now I will look back and say "OMG how cute" and then cry.  

Here are some of the photos that didn't turn out so well (and yet I still love them):

Christmas Tree Farm

We got our Christmas tree! After Thanksgiving we headed out to Rhonda & Chris' Tree Farm and picked out a beautiful Virginia Pine to live with us for the next month.  It is a very small farm and is only open two weekends but the experience was perfect.  The property is beautiful and we spent most of our time there talking about what we would do if we owned the property, soccer pitches were involved.

We started going to tree farms in Hawaii, where there was only one, and now there are so many options and we definitely plan to keep up the tradition with Kian as he grows.

Christmas at Opryland

We went to Opryland over the weekend to look at all the Christmas Decorations.  We'll probably go back a couple more times to find all of the trees from the parade of trees and maybe even go through the maze of ice sculptures.  Brenden and I may even do a little stay-cation at the hotel.  I'm very excited about the holiday season and that this holiday season we will be living in the cold!  

Mele Kalikimaka!

Brenden and Izzy were the stars of our holiday Christmas card this year so I will be the star of the blog! Here I am as Santa wishing you the happiest of holidays!

advent activity | 24

Our last activity was to sleep next to the Christmas tree. We have spent the evening watching various Christmas movies and eating all of Santa's cookies.

We have come to the end of our Advent activities!   I really enjoyed our Advent activities calendar and I hope that we do it again.  Next year I want to plan out our calendar earlier and have all the supplies on hand.  And buy tickets for events in advance.  

Hope you enjoyed our advent activities!  And Happy Christmas Eve.