Christmas is Here

This past weekend, I decided that it was going to be Christmas. Like, right then. I’ve had a hard time mustering up the Christmas spirit, but this weekend I was determined to not only find my Christmas spirit, but to rock the crap out of it.

I wasn’t feeling well on Saturday, so I spent the day sitting on my couch, wrapping Christmas presents and watching “A Christmas Story” a million times over and over again. I now worry that Bean is going to go to school talking about “electric sex gleaming in the window.”

My mom came over Sunday afternoon to bake Christmas cookies with me and the kids. And bake is exactly what we did. Holy cow.

We made all kinds of cookies and goodies, and then packaged them up in containers of all sizes to give out to friends and neighbors. We put together these larger boxes for a few of my neighbors. I’ve never given cookies to neighbors before, but it was so much fun! Gracie and I delivered them later that afternoon and everyone was so happy to see us! I wish I’d done this years ago!

My mom found these cute little boxes at Old Tyme Pottery. I thought they were adorable, and the perfect size for some sweet friends at work. I ran out of Christmas present labels, so I smacked big white name tag labels on them instead. I thought they were pretty cute, and my co-workers were excited to see them coming into their classrooms today!

I put together a bigger tin of cookies and treats to sit out in the teacher’s lounge for all the teachers on my hall to share.

We also put together three small little treat bags for Bean’s three new teachers. He just moved up into the next classroom this week. I was a little confused about what to do about Christmas presents for his teachers. We love his old teachers, and I already had little gifts for them, but then he moved up and got all new teachers. I ended up going with little treat bags for the three new teachers with a little card for each from Bean telling them how excited he was to be in their class now.

For Bean’s old teachers (who he has had all year) and for Gracie’s teachers, I packaged up Bath and Body Works lotions and bubble baths for each of them. My mom actually picked these up months ago at a Memorial Day sale, and I’ve had them shoved in my closet for the past few months, waiting for Christmas. I put labels on each of those, and handed them out this morning. The girls loved them!

For the kids classmates, my mom made these adorable reindeer candy canes. We put them in red cups and put labels on them, too. I sat these on the pick up table where parents pick up all the kids stuff at the end of the day.

It was amazing how excited I became about the holidays after a few hours of making things for other people! I am ready! Bring it, Santa!