Welcome, December.

Can't believe it's December. Alla's in her playroom listening to Christmas songs on the radio, it's a cool twenty-something outside with a little bit of white stuff on the ground, and we're off to the post office today to mail some Christmas gifts. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And to kick it off, Alla started in on the 24 Days of Christmas this morning. We figured we'd give her one last year on her own, since Fisher could care less about numbered boxes containing little trinkets. But next year she's gonna have to take turns opening.

Today's treat for her was a wind-up butterfly that she promtpy named Farfallina. Other treats include new tights, some stamps, toy dinosaurs, a card game, socks, a board game for Family Game Night (some of the stuff obviously doesn't fit IN the boxes so we leave her a note inside as to where she can find the treat). There are lots of non-material gifts, such as a swim date with Mama (uh, yes, the community center's pool is both indoors and heated), a date with Daddy, special Christmas shows to watch on TV, a dollar to put in the Salvation Army bucket when we go to the store. We keep a master list with us so that we can make sure things are in place for her the next morning, and move things around if necessary - for example, if it were to snow and be a weekend, then we might decide to take her sledding or something wintery like that.

It is VERY fun to think about this stuff year-round, and easier, too, than trying to gather it all at once. Now, since I can't wait til this time next year to think about what to stuff in there for both of them, if you leave a comment today, give me some ideas on what next year's boxes could hold for a 4 and a half year old girlie, and a 20-month-old baby boy:)