Christmas 2016

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas at home this year which was much needed after our emotional Christmas last year. It was low-key with nothing on the schedule besides exploring downtown and meeting friends at the Christmas train display at Belmond Charleston Place on Christmas Eve.

That evolved into throwing pennies into a nearby fountain, which I think Rowan enjoyed even more than the trains, and a stop at Revelry Brewing for the parents. Quite the nontraditional Christmas Eve!

On Christmas morning I expected Rowan to tear into his presents but he was so laid back! We practically had to talk him into opening his gifts because he was so into his new easel and slide, which Santa's elves lovingly built Christmas Eve!

(Excuse the grainy photos, it was so dark Christmas morning despite Rowan sleeping in a bit!)

He was a big fan of his stocking, which is my favorite part of Christmas morning too! Also, that bed head. I love it.

After presents and a big breakfast, we walked around south of Broad Street to see the gorgeous homes before all of the decor is taken down. It's kind of become a tradition which we started when I was super prego two years ago.

I know most people have their trees down by now but we're still celebrating with family so I'm still in Christmas mode over here. I don't think it's even hit me that 2017 is in a few days!

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Christmas Around Here

It's so hard to believe there are only 4 more sleeps until Christmas! This month has flown by and I've tried to make a conscious effort to soak in all of the craziness.

But you know you've reached bad blogger status when you are posting Christmas decor this late. Oops! I had plans to do this sooner, but as some of you may have seen on IG stories yesterday, I've been dealing with some back problems for the past month and sitting in front of a computer longer than I already do for my day job was not an option. Thankfully I think I'm finally on the mend, which is great because my 30-pound toddler didn't get the memo that mommy can't hold him all of the time!

Anyway, on to the fun stuff! Usually I decorate with a lot of reds but this year I switched it up and I love the little change! I mean, aside from the garland that dried out about 2 weeks ago and the Trader Joe's wreath that somehow smells more like body odor than evergreen?

I think we may have bought one of the biggest Christmas trees on the lot this year. We loved it so much but failed to take into account our 9 foot ceiling so it sort of felt like a Griswald tree once we got it in the house. "It's all part of the experience, honey."

Rowan has done surprisingly well with the tree, knock on wood. We put all of the toddler-friendly ornaments on the bottom and he has about 5 that he takes on and off which is fine by me!

I'm really missing a fireplace mantel again this year but our tv stand is tall enough that its a decent alternative topped with some live-ish garland!

The car pillow just might be my favorite new addition... I was trying to find one that I liked everywhere but ended up adapting Lisa's idea by cutting the car from this placemat and ironing it on a white Ikea cover using this method.

If you follow on Snapchat, yesterday I shared a quick real life tour. You know, the kind that shows all of the junk and toys dispersed throughout the living area that you shove into a closet before taking the pretty photos!

I have Rowan's room and the guest room decorated a bit, but there is zero hope in making those picture ready. Maybe someday I'll get it together!

Hope you've all have a fun Christmas week!

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Our Weekend + Favorite Sugar Cookies

I've been trying my hardest to get a little Christmas home tour for you guys but as it turns out, I really dislike cleaning my house. Our "live" garland has seen better days and I'm slowly having to move ornaments higher and higher on the tree, but hopefully I can snap a few photos before everything dies on me!

Also I realized I forgot to share our Minted Christmas cards here! I love them so much. Our photo was one of those moments where I'm glad there is proof I gave birth to my child because he is a spitting image of his Daddy.

Our weekend was filled with visiting Santa, a stop at the aquarium, and perusing our favorite streets in South of Broad to see all of the Christmas decor. I officially came to the conclusion December is the best time to visit Charleston. You just really can't beat the cool temps and charming doorways with giant wreaths!

I don't know why I didn't think of giving R the cookie cutters to play with earlier, we got like 20 solid minutes of independent play out of that.

On Sunday we stayed in our pajamas and baked sugar cookies. It was a mess with a toddler involved but he loved it. He dipped the cookie cutter in flour first then pushed it down aimlessly wherever he could reach.

My husband claims he doesn't want to screw up the cookies so he'd rather not help decorate. (Insert eye roll here). But honestly I kind of don't blame him. I have to be in the mood to decorate them otherwise they all get some frosting slapped on with the same sprinkles.

But this year I got smart and used a pastry bag to frost them all and it was the easiest and quickest way to frost a sugar cookie! I know Pinterest and bloggers love the look of royal icing cookies but who really has the time for that?! I'll take funfetti frosting over royal icing any day.

I've tried other sugar cookie recipes but always come back to this one! Once the frosting sits on there overnight they soften up and are so.dang.good. The problem is that working from home means I'm 20 feet away from them all day. Cookie for breakfast? Yep. Lunch? Yep.

Hopefully I can whip up a few more types of cookies so we don't eat all of these too quickly! Tell me some of your favorite cookie recipes!! 

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Toddler Advent Calendar Ideas

It's been such a fun Christmas season over here, we've been so busy despite it only being one week into December!

With Rowan just a few months shy of 2 years old (cue my ugly crying), he is starting to understand more about the holidays and I've been excited to try a few new things with him this year. I thought an advent calendar would be a fun way to incorporate some festive activities and make sure we cross off some of our holiday to-do list!

 Last year I picked up a stocking advent calendar during the after-Christmas sales (similar here) so it was just a matter of finding easy things to do during the week and filling in the weekend with bigger things like visiting Santa and baking cookies. With Rowan involved it's inevitable a few cookies will get "boo boos" and need to me eaten immediately, so you won't hear me complaining!

I know a lot of people do small gifts each day but I wanted to keep it simple because the last thing the kid needs is more stuff and I really want him to start learning about giving and helping others. The only gifts I included in his advent activities are a new Christmas book, a Finding Dory figurine (which he is oddly crazy about), and some stickers or crafts we can do together.

These free printables for activities from i heart naptime are so cute and made my job so much easier! I love that there are blank cards included so you can add your own.

Make Christmas Cookies

Read a new Christmas book

Make Christmas cards for the military

Decorate the Christmas Tree

Drive around to see Christmas Lights

Take Ruby for a walk and give her a new dog treat

Pass out Christmas cookies

Listen to Christmas music

Watch a Christmas movie

Visit Santa Claus

Playground date with Daddy

Decorate Gingerbread Houses

See Scuba Santa at the Aquarium

Drink hot chocolate with marshmallows

Make reindeer food

Make a Christmas ornament

Make paper snowflakes (I'm going to make them in advance and let him open them up)

Learn about the Nativity

Donate to Toys for Tots and the Humane Society

Make a Christmas treat

Have festive pancakes for breakfast (or dinner!)

Take a family picture with your Christmas tree

Sing Christmas carols

Paint a holiday picture for grandparents

Read about the Christmas story

Rowan is really into art (especially painting) lately so I picked up some wooden ornaments and little craft projects from Michael's for some of the activities. Try not to be too jealous of his coloring skills!

Also if you're looking for a new Christmas book, a few of our favorites (other than Little Blue Truck which has been well documented) are Olaf's Night Before Christmas, Bear Stays Up for Christmas, and my personal fave, Home Alone! Seriously, its Home Alone in a children's book form with the cutest pictures. I admit that one may have been more for us than R though!

If you have more ideas for an advent calendar with a toddler I'd love to hear them!

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