Lately

Marin is taking two naps a day now. Most of the time she just wants to stand instead of sleep, so it takes me about 5 tries to get her to sleep. And she wakes up in the middle of the night at least once (to stand) and likes to be up for the day around 4 or 5. It.is.awesome. Also, she's working on her molars. And the whole Denver metro area is out of Hyland's teething tablets. That.is.awesome. Oh, and also, she loves to try to pull up to standing on just about anything and everything. Can we say dangerous, and, awesome?

--------

A lot of people are talking about Christmas traditions out there in Blogland.
I wouldn't say I have any cold, hard traditions that I absolutely love and must pass on.
The only sure things we could count on during this season when we were kids were two-fold:

1) Christmas baking anytime in the month of December. What we made, when, how much all depended. (I had 26 brothers and sisters, m'kay?)

I'm obviously doing this. I love to bake. I love sugar. And I have two girls. Duh. Jason would like to start gingerbread house building every Christmas Eve when the girls are older. He'll have fun with his little mini-engineer right beside him helping.

2) Mass on Christmas Eve, followed by a dinner of party food/appetizers/egg nog. Opening presents followed on Christmas morning with cinnamon rolls.

This is pretty easy to follow. Some years it will probably be off as we visit grandparents, but I'ma try to stick to it as best I can. And no cinnamon rolls - I make a mean french toast casserole (except not this year, cuz hello, my kids are 13.75 months apart).

--------

Our house has been torn apart a little the last couple of weeks. We're slowly piecing it back together, getting little projects crossed off the list before family comes.

I've been going back and forth between crafting, cleaning, decorating, organizing and baking.

Random things in living room.

Kitchen. Gingerbread theme. (Minus gingerbread place setting on kitchen table - breakables!)

Dining room. Minus the breakable dinnerware and place settings.

(Old pic before kids)

Christmas tree. Woodland theme.

Family room. Random. (Not pictured: stockings.)

Baking. Ritz covered in chocolate spiked with peppermint extract. Oreo truffles. Gingerbread cookies to come. Maybe.

Wet paint and first project in play/craft room. Better pictures forthcoming, once the room is actually done. Maybe we can score a kids table for cheap-ola during an after Christmas sale.

Get this stuff. It tastes like apple cider and makes your house smell amazing.

Thanks, but no thanks. Really.

Until next time.