Matches

Alright, I've avoided blogging for long enough.

Last December I wanted to make sure we brought some holiday spirit into our house. If you read the previous post written by my husband, I'll need to explain that his "bah humbug" attitude does not just apply to Christmas lights. He's pretty much a Scrooge regarding all holidays. I'm not sure why, but it potentially becomes a bone of contention for me for the final three months of the year.

So, last year I took matters into my own hands. I decided we needed to bring some holiday cheer into our home to hear up for Christmas. I planned some sort of activity or craft or baked good for each day of December leading up to Christmas. You can read about last year's activities here. We took pictures each day (I knew that was the best and easiest way to insure Todd would play along) and I created a scrapbook with all of our memories. It became our Daily December Journal. I loved my book so much and the fun things we were able to do as a family, that I decided this was now a new tradition. We've been on task each day this month so far, and I think Todd is even beginning to enjoy the things we do too. I am also well aware of the fact that this tradition will only change, grow and get easier as we can implement some different ideas as the kids get older.

Obviously, because of this tradition, I have plenty to write about, and more than enough pictures, but I'm not going to bore you with any of those details. I may post some of my favorites later this month, or early next year, but for now, I'll just share a funny little story about Dylan.

As always, I put away all the fall/Thanksgiving decorations after I got home from shopping on Black Friday. And, as always, the Christmas decorations were brought out. I learned from my sister that the easiest way to TRY to keep the kids from touching all of your decorations was to give them something of their very own to play with. Last year, for one of our 25 Days of Christmas, I gave them the Little People Nativity Set. This year, I placed the nativity on a small table in the front room where the rest of our holiday decorations are. I love to collect nativities and have quite a few around the room. My favorite to date is the Willow Tree Nativity I got the day after Christmas a few years ago. I love it. The kinds on the other hand, love to play with their nativity set. They play together, fight over the pieces together and sit and read a board book I placed nearby and the birth of Christ. It talks about Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, the baby Jesus and all the animals in the stable. They sit together, look at the pictures and pick up the appropriate piece of the Little People set. They truly love this little Nativity that is all for them.

Last week after I got out of the shower, Dylan came into my room so excited. She said, "Mommy, mommy, I made matches!"

Huh?

"I made matches. Come see."

At this point I was a little worried. I had no idea what she was talking about. She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the front room. She proudly showed me how she made matches with her nativity. She had climbed on top of the piano bench and matched all of her Little People toys to the corresponding Willow Tree figures I placed on top of the piano. And she matched them all correctly too, right down to the creche. I was so surprised to see that she understood that her nativity and mine had the same animals and people. I had never show her this, but she proceeded to tell me where the Wise Men were, the camel, the sheep and baby Jesus. I was so touched that she "got it" that I went and got the camera to take a few pictures of her matches....before she got reminded that she wasn't allowed to touch mommy's nativity, only hers.