Beginnings of Christmas Memories

Since the boys were sick last weekend and we couldn't go out and play we put out all the Christmas decorations early. Micah understands so much more about Christmas this year and he's been able to participate more. It's exciting!

Caleb was the sickest and not enjoying the night, so he's not in many pictures, poor guy. His first ornament is a baby bear sleeping on his tummy on a blanket held up by stars.

Here is Micah with his new ornament that he picked out himself.

And here he is with his ornaments from all three years of his life.

Micah put the star on the top of the tree.

And then we read the Christmas Story from a book we bought Micah for his first Christmas. We let Micah play with the nativity characters as we read the book, so he got to act out the story with the little glittery Mary, Joseph, Shepherd, etc. He loved it and has asked to read it several more times. When we get to the part about the wise men bringing gifts, that's when we talk about giving gifts to those we love at Christmas time.

Next we read the book Aunt Kelly and Uncle Kyle gave Micah for his first Christmas. The Elf on The Shelf. It's about an elf who comes to stay in your house from Thanksgiving till Christmas Eve. He watches how you behave and he flies back to Santa at night to report your behavior. Then he comes back to your house. Every morning the elf is hiding in a new spot where he can watch you. The idea is to get up from bed and try to find him. Micah loved the book and named the Elf, "Ohgey-Gai." I think he'll have a lot of fun finding him this year!

Here we are decorating his tree for his room.

Caleb is so tactile! He reaches for everything and he got several good fistfuls of tree branches through the night. This is his tree we're decorating below. Look how sad and sick he looks! Poor baby!

Despite runny noses and fevers, it was a fun night to kick-off Christmas!