Happy Christmas season! I don’t know about you, but the last few weeks have felt really crazy for us here – we celebrated Isla’s first birthday (post coming soon!), celebrated Thanksgiving, and have been trying to decorate for the holidays.
The rule at our house is no Christmas decor until after Thanksgiving. Last year I had a baby on Thanksgiving day, so we hardly decorated; this year I was ready to go ALL OUT on November 24th!
But my toddler had other plans.
She is so active now, that it’s hard to carve out time to get much done. It took me over a week to get the Christmas tree setup (1 day), get the lights on the tree (4 days), and get the ornaments and tree topper on (another 3 days).
But now it’s done and she loves it! She was only a few weeks old this time last year, so it’s really fun now to see her enjoying the snow, and looking at all of the Christmas lights. It’s so precious watching her experience the magic of Christmas for the first time.
“Decorating” the tree = ripping bows and ribbon off presents and stuffing them into the branches.
We taught her right away that we don’t touch the tree – and she loves showing us the things she’s learned. So she’ll crawl up to the tree, make sure we’re looking, and then wag her finger at the tree and say “no no!”. Not touching the tree is pretty serious business to her.
GIVEAWAY TIME!
Considering how long it’s taken me to get my decorating done, you can bet that I don’t have my Christmas shopping done yet. How about you?
On that note, for my Metro Detroit readers out there – I have a great idea for a gift this year! We have had an awesome experience this year at Goldfish Swim School of Ann Arbor, so I am really excited to give away one Goldfish Swim School Holiday Package to one lucky reader! These packages are *adorable* and are a wonderful way to give the gift of experience (the best kind of gift!) and water safety.
This giveaway isn’t just for Moms & Dads, I’m also looking at you Aunts & Uncles, Grandparents, any of you out there with a special little one in your life!
The package contains:
- 2 Months of Swim Lessons
- Waived Registration Fee
- Family Swim Passes
- Fleece Blanket
- Winter Hat
The winner will pick up their prize at Goldfish Swim School of Ann Arbor, and it can be redeemed at any of the 7 Metro Detroit area Goldfish Swim Schools:
Ann Arbor, Birmingham, Canton, Clarkston, Farmington Hills, Macomb, Rochester
HOW TO ENTER:
Follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below to enter the giveaway! If you cannot see the Rafflecopter widget, you may need to reload the page (or if you’re viewing this in an email, click over to the post).
1 winner will be chosen randomly on December 15th at 12AM EST, and will be notified via email.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck (I secretly hope you all win), and Happy Holidays!
(Almost) Spring = St. Patty’s Day! In honor of that, I’ve created a free printable of my Green Beer chalkboard sign. I loved creating this sign last year and hope you love it, too!
Can we just take a look back at my most favorite couples costume that Jeremy and I ever wore: 1950’s husband and wife. We actually won a $100 costume contest that night, it was SO much fun. Jeremy got a lot of comments on how he not only looked like a 1950’s husband, but also a 1950’s NASA scientist.
Pillows: 
