Christmas 2020

 Ok, I have this problem where I think that everything is, like, TOTALLY amazing, and this Christmas was no different.

It was completely....amazing!!

This was made possible by my kids. They were both SO excited about Christmas. Every day of December, pretty much all day, they'd talk about Santa and presents, and magic.  Such a delight. I put a good amount of time and energy into making the month feel as festive as I could...with my limited skills and inability to appreciate crafts and such.

That said, we did Elf on the Shelf because Nova's friend Frida told her, "If you DREAM hard enough, if you WISH hard enough, an elf will appear in the night!" So, Nova kept telling me, "I am going to dream as hard as I can so that an elf will appear!" Well, who can say no to that?!

So Frinkle and Twinkle were born. The moved around *almost* every night of December, though they got lazy a few times.

Another new tradition was a Santa video. A friend of a friend looks like Santa and puts together personalized video messages for kids. It was a HIT!!  And I get to keep it forever. Truly amazing.

I also referred to my list of holiday traditions from last year (yes, keeping a list of holiday traditions is also a tradition!) and we followed many like writing letters to Santa the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve Box (which was a bit under appreciated), making Cookies for Santa, and watching terrible movies with my terrible husband throughout December. 

The gifts we received from friends and family trumped what Santa brought this year, and I couldn't be more thankful!

Our neighbors gave us Christmas lights, so our tree finally got an upgrade. The kids loved the lights.

We kept the "Santa Tracker" that NORAD does running all day long. It was fun to give mini-lessons on geography while all of my battery got used up.

The first time we watched the Santa video, the kids were nervous. They thought it was live. But, each viewing since then were magic.  Santa even said, "I know you weren't able to see Kaia as much as you'd like this year, but if you keep her in your heart, that's wonderful, too."

To Lynx, from Santa. 

To Nova, from Santa.

My poor floor.

Hot Chocolate "Bombs" from Tyeshia. So good!

This dinosaur bedspread was brought to you by Auntie Breck. So cute and so loved!

This Elsa bedspread and matching pillowcases (and sheets!) also a luxury from Aunt Breck!