I can't believe Christmas is this week.  I remember as a kid, it felt like it took Christmas forever to arrive.  As an adult (and as a parent), it feels like there aren't enough days leading up to Christmas.  Christmas literally sneaks up on you so fast.

We're all ready for Christmas at our house, and anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival.  Katherine loves Santa.  As we were walking through Target the other day, Katherine spotted an older man with a white beard restocking the shelves in his Target red shirt.  When we passed by him she shouted, "Hi Santa!"  I don't think he was amused.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we didn't decorate as much around the house as usual this year.  There's been a lot going on and curious little hands like to touch everything.  Here's a brief look at some of our holiday decor this year:

(See our Christmas decorations from two years ago here.)

It was cookie central in our house over the weekend, as I went crazy baking cookies to take to our friends and family.  Our cookie extravaganza included iced sugar cookies, chocolate peppermint cookies, Snicker cookies, and gingerbread cookies.  I probably sampled 2-3 cookies from each batch.  I'm still on a sugar high.  

Because this time of year can get very busy, I'm trying to slow down and not stress over little things.  Like, for instance, Jason's head being cut off on our Christmas cards.  Seriously.  How did that even happen?  Nothing else to do but send them out anyway.  Oh well.  If you received our Christmas card this year, I apologize for Jason's lack of forehead.
Not to mention my phone decided to try and end it's own life this week.  The poor thing is literally on it's last leg.  I'm hoping it will survive until after Christmas is over.  Buying a new phone isn't exactly in the Christmas budget this late in the game.

I'm feeling extra blessed this year and can't wait to see Katherine's face on Christmas morning.  She really seems to be getting into the holidays, singing songs and "performing" daily.  I recently got my old wooden microphone out for her.  When I was around her age my grandfather made me a wooden microphone on a stand because, much like Katherine, I liked to sing songs and perform for the family.  It turns out, Katherine loves singing into the microphone as well.  I only wish my grandfather was here to see and hear her sing "Let It Go" over and over and over and over....
I briefly had to take away her microphone privileges and have a talk with her about how the microphone is not to be used as a weapon, and swinging it around the dogs was not acceptable behavior.  She has since learned how to respectfully use the microphone.

A bonus Katherine story:  We like to play the "who's is this?" game when I fold the laundry, and Katherine tells me who's clothing item I'm folding.  As we were walking through Target (the same trip as the Santa innocent), Katherine sees a rack of yoga pants and points to it shouting "Mommy's!"  Does this mean I wear yoga pants to often?    

I'm now going to finish wrapping Christmas presents while continuously watching sappy Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel.