We have a tradition of putting the tree up on December 1st so that it is up for a full month. We only hang ornaments on the tree that have been given to us or have some kind of memory attached to them. Each ornament that goes on the tree evokes a memory, either of the giver of the significance of the ornament itself. A very good example is the ornament of a little beaver. Papa Bear gave this ornament to Little Man at his 1st Christmas. At the time, Little Man was 9 month old, teething and had taken to using his crib to teeth. He would gnaw on the wood of the crib taking off huge chunks of wood - thus the beaver reference. Then at Little Man's second Christmas when he was 21 months old that beaver ornament inspired Little Man's first complete sentence. He said "I tickled the beaver" as he reached over the tickled the ornament's belly. (Yes, the double meaning made us crack up laughing in horror/hilarity and Papa Bear remains proud of his son's first sentence)
A new December 1st tradition that we started this year was the use of an advent calendar. The kind with little doors that hide a chocolate treat for the 25 days before Christmas countdown. When will I learn to not tell him things in advance? 5:30 am Little Man wakes up and yells "It's December 1st time for Christmas Trees and Treats!" He was so excited to a part of the transformation for Christmas. He took his job of putting the window cling stickers up very seriously and rearranges them daily. He helped me make Christmas cookies but decided that we should use Rudolph, Snowman and Dinosaur shapes. He said that they are special Christmas Dinosaurs and really who I am to argue with his logic, if we can have a deer with a glow in the dark nose why not a christmas dinosaur. We have watched Christmas movies like The Grinch who stole Christmas or as Little Man calls it "The Green Guy movie" and The Curious George Christmas special otherwise known in this house as "The Monkey Christmas".
Oh and just so that Peanut gets a mention here, he hasn't really taken an interest in the changes in the house because he is so intent on working on crawling that all else pales in comparison. Boy does that kid want to move and I am kind of hoping he doesn't get it too good at it until the Christmas decorations go back in the box at the end of the month.
This is going to be a month of making special holiday memories and tons of sugar. I can't wait!!
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