Advent Days 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

Hmm, so we are a little out of order here but I am sure you can still follow along just fine.

Day 7: Stamp and Mail Christmas Cards

I thought Claire would be better at this than she was. She treated the stamps as stickers and I nearly had a heart attack because stamps are so freaking expensive and I hate buying them and I LOATHE wasting them. She did all of the self-inking return address stamps and it took every bit of self control I have to shut up the OCD correspondence person inside of me because they came out all crooked and some are doubled-up because she didn't push it all the way. My poor college roommate, Sarah, her card is totally f'd up because the ink wasn't dry and Claire touched it and ran her fingers through it and there's ink alllll over that one. But, she has young twins so I feel like of all people on my list, SHE WILL UNDERSTAND.

(Sorry you got the crap card this year, Sarah.)

Day 9: Open a present

Claire opened her very own copy of Elmo's Merry Christmas. We read it every night. She adores this book. I like "open a present" advent days because they require no crafting or making a mess or going anywhere. 

Day 10: Was originally "See a Christmas Concert" but then we decided that was a terrible idea (it was at 7pm, Claire is usually in bed by 630) so we decided instead to go to the local Christmas parade.

This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It was just our little town's Christmas parade and the floats were flatbed trailers behind a truck, but it was cute. Two marching bands, the boy scouts, girl scouts, the local dance schools, a bunch of real estate agents, even more churches and living nativity scenes (in the back of a truck, walking, on a trailer, dancing, kids, adults). The weather was very pretty and even though it was cold, we had fun. 

Here I am in my Piper and Paisley hat that I love-love-love oh my God I love this hat far more than is reasonable.

The parade started and the first guy that came by gave Claire a mini candy cane. I thought, "Oh, that's nice! A candy cane!" Then more people gave her candy. "Hmmm," I thought. "This is kind of weird...everyone is giving away candy." Claire started keeping it in her stroller. People started throwing it into her stroller.

Then she started hoarding some of it in her paw.

Meanwhile, the local Jeep club cruised by.

After an hour, Claire had about fifteen invitations to church, five referral cards for real estate agents, a few coupons for local plumbers/electricians, two Frisbees, and more than a gallon of candy. A GALLON OF CANDY! And then, as children do in the presence of candy, she became completely obsessed with her candy and could not stop talking about the candy and when can she have some candy and can she hold the candy and which candy can she have and CANDY CANDY CANDY.

As a parent that was completely unprepared for a Candy Conversation I was a little caught off guard. Normally I might prep her with, "We will only keep five pieces of candy" or something like that. We got home and she lost her fool mind over the candy and I made her take a nap. I packaged up the candy for Chris to take to work. When she woke up she never asked me about it so...I guess that's the end of that.

Day 11: Look at Christmas Lights

There is another town near us that has a cute downtown area that is all Christmas'd up and kind of crazy and probably seizure-inducing. We were going to go over there and get cookies and walk around and marvel at the display of electricity.

But then Claire kind of lost of her marbles and I sent her to bed at 530 so that nixed the Christmas lights. We might give this one a do-over later on.

Day 12: Wrap Presents

Claire used some pinking scissors to cut the paper and she wrapped scotch tape around her fingers but by gosh we sure did wrap the heck out of some presents tonight. She enjoyed it more than I did.

In the past, she hasn't really understood the concept of a surprise and how we don't tell the recipient what is in the gift. For her father's birthday we wrapped the presents and when he walked in the door she marched him over to the gifts and pointed out what was in each one, as if she were some sort of Gift Tour Guide. ("This one has the book in it!")

We'll see if she can keep the contents of some of the boxes to herself.

Comments

[Megan]

Oh. We had that little jacket from the Gap last year and it doesn't fit anymore. Sweet. I am impressed you let her do the Christmas cards. Most of our Christmas activities end with me yelling in some way.

[Elizabeth]

I have that jacket too! It's still too big for Katie.
Also, you are too adorable in that hat. It makes me want to buy one and I am not a hat person, really.

[Jen]

I love your hat! And Charlotte's too! Where is hers from? I might need to show a picture to my mom and tell her to GET KNITTING!

Gah, I am doing Christmas cards tomorrow with my 2 year old and the perfectionist in me is just positively dreading it.

[HereWeGoAJen]

Hmm, letting Elizabeth help with the Christmas cards is one that I hadn't thought of. It's ON THE LIST.

I like the parade idea too, I don't think our town has a Christmas parade. The next town over has one, but it starts at 7:30pm and bedtime also starts at 7:30pm and maybe we'll do it in a couple of years.

[Meghan]

First, I love your hat. I wish I looked that cute in a hat ;)

Most importantly though, how on earth do you get Claire to bed at 6:30??? Bedtime starts around 8 and depending on the level of punk, can last until 9:30. What time does she wake up? How can I get this earlier bedtime thing going too? Do you drug her?? Because I'm not above that ;)

[Erica]

Loving the pics on this post. The candy thing is cracking me up.

[Jesabes]

I'm hoping Margaret can keep gifts a semi-secret this year, since she bought most of them with me. For my mom, I bought tons of little gifts, so I'm hoping it at least confused her enough that she won't be able to ruin the surprise. Practically everywhere we went we were buyin' a present for Ga-ma.

[Life of a Doctor's Wife]

Your hat is adorable! And I love the whole parade thing. Parades are awesome - especially when you're little. And look at that candy haul!