Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve consisted of... 

toddler selfies!

One last message from Oscar.

 

The Readling family tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve.

 

 Chocolate milk.

 

Tracking Santa's progress with NORAD.

A few head stands.

A note, freshly made chocolate chip cookies and a tall glass of milk for Santa! (I wanted to leave him a  Cheerwine but Greg vetoed that idea. He also insisted that Santa was a Phillies fan!)

Elf on the shelf

Mayson Pearl has been enjoying having our elf Oscar around. I wasn't sure whether she was old enough this year or not but Mimi sent Mayson her very own elf so I figured we might as well get the tradition started!

It only took Maysie a few days to catch on to her Elf's hide and seek antics. The first week whenever we'd ask her where her elf was she'd go to the places where he'd hidden before; but now she finally seems to be catching on that he shows up in different and funny places. She smiles ear to ear and sometimes even giggles when she finds Oscar sleeping in her crib, riding on her rocking horse, eating cookies on the couch or walking "Snoop Dog." I'm glad we decided not to follow the "No Touch" clause because Mayson loves to carry Oscar around and sometimes even hides him herself- which funny enough is only ever in the spots where she has found him before! 

Come December 25th we are really going to miss the little guy... But at least now I know we have a fun tradition started that we can look forward to next year.

Wordless Wednesday

Greg and Mayson's latest collaboration... 

We are affectionately referring to him as "Blind Santa!"

Who is that?

Mayson Pearl and I just happened to be in the garage today when Greg came home. The garage door opened and when she saw his car pull into the driveway she looked up at me with a completely serious face, pointed and said, "Who is that?"

It's little moments like this when I look down at my baby girl and realize how oh-so-very big she is getting. Which is both heartwarming and heart wrenching all at the same time.

say cheese!!!

 

 

Cookies, Lists and Christmas things

Mayson and I have been trying to keep busy as we count down the days til Christmas.

We've been checking our mail daily for a letter from Santa.

We are perfecting our sugar cookies so they'll be ready for the big night. Only the absolute best will do for old Kris Kringle.

(Her mixing skills could use some work!!)

And of course Christmas preparations could not be complete without the obligatory list for Santa.

December fun

To help us get into the spirit of the season so far we have...

Put up some Christmas themed window clings. The floating shepherds and camel are my faves!

Decorated a Christmas tree with stickers.

Attempted to use our fingerprints to make Christmas lights. Mayson was far more interested in smearing the painted fingerprints than making them.

And of course we had to make the classic hand and footprint reindeer. I use to make these with the kiddos in my class every year.

And last but not least I baked my first batch of Christmas cookies (from scratch!!) Mayson Pearl had a blast helping me decorate them but let me just caution you that fourteen month olds and sprinkles don't really mix!! I'll probably be finding sprinkles for weeks! 

Snow in Florida?

NAS Jacksonville hosted a fun event for the kiddos on Friday evening called "Dashing thru the Grove." Despite the high of the day creeping over 80, with a little holiday magic (and hundreds of bags of ice!!), we were able to play in some "snow,"

 

Maysie didn't quite know what to think.

There were also tons of bounce houses and inflatable slides but as you can see Mayson wasn't quite a fan!

This was about as far as she would go in. I don't think she was a fan of the bigger kids jumping around in there.

The highlight of the evening was seeing Santa!! 

Although it was pretty clear that only Greg and I were the ones excited about seeing the Big Red Guy, Mayson had an entirely different reaction!!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Caution: a million pictures ahead!

We've started decorating for Christmas and even Mayson Pearl has joined in on the fun.

This little girl absolutely LOVES decorating Chistmas trees!