Last night Santa stopped in our neighborhood, and he was announced by sirens and a bullhorn. Quite exciting, although k said she was scared of “the white thing”–(Santa’s beard).

n enjoyed the candy cane Santa handed out. Well, at least he enjoyed chewing on the plastic wrapper on the outside of the candy cane since he’s too young.

I made a Christmas tree for k’s dollhouse. I have many more ideas for her dollhouse swirling around in my head, if only I had the time.

Last weekend I was able to complete my set of Tokidoki Yogurtland spoons.

Still working on my state quarter set, though. Two more to go, I think. There is something so satisfying about having a complete set of something.

Saturday morning we hosted 40+ people in our home for k’s 3rd birthday party. The theme was “breakfast” and we invited people to come in their pjs. Unfortunately, it was raining, but everyone made it. We had egg casserole, scrambled eggs, mini pigs in a blanket, turkey sausage, yogurt parfaits, mini muffins, mini quiches and made to order pancakes. I sewed up some favor bags out of a cute flannel print I found at Joann’s that had eggs, coffee, toast, etc. Some of the kids made necklaces out of Froot Loops and Honeycomb cereal. The finale was a “cake” made out of mini krispy kreme donuts. k seemed kind of overwhelmed and was quiet throughout the party. She did blow out her own candles, though. Once everyone left, she was running around and yelling…she has quite the split personality.

I loved being indoors today during our first big rainfall. k says she likes it better rainy rather than sunny.

This year I made stockings for each family member. The plan is to add a little “flair” each year to make them more personalized. We don’t have a mantel, so I made do with Command hooks on our Expedit. Stocking stuffers are my favorite type of gifts to buy. Actually, Command hooks would make good stocking stuffers!

k knows which one is hers.

k’s newest ornament from Uncle & Auntie: Hello Kitty as snowman. Too cute. Maybe she should have an HK collection. I think my collection of penguin ornaments has reached completion. When I started, penguins were hard to come by, but now they are everywhere, so the fun of the “hunt” is not there anymore. I am thinking my next collection will be food/kitchen themed ornaments.

Funny comment by k: After tasting a spoonful of my straight-from-the-can Campbell’s tomato soup, “Mommy, you’re a good cooker!”

Yesterday we had some help in putting up our first Christmas tree as a family. Before, our place didn’t really have room, and I thought k would just knock it down. Now we have to worry about n, I guess, but I don’t want k to miss out now that she is more cognizant of Christmas.

One nice thing about vaulted ceilings is that you can accomodate a tall tree!

Once a year, around Oct.-Nov., I have a craving for pumpkin cheesecake. This definitely fulfilled that craving!

Tonight we had our first Advent family devotional. Still need to work on Advent calendar activities.