Big Cookies, Bright Lights

Let me get this out of the way: I love Christmas with small children. That having been said, Christmas with small children is exhausting. This situation has not been helped by my transfer into a squad that is working mandatory overtime on eight projects. Still, because I have a great husband, Christmas traditions have not been neglected... much.

This year, we actually decorated our house.

Here is Chris doing some of the lighting work while Emily keeps him entertained with tales of that crazy llama.

And we have a tree. I think we'll do a live tree as long as Christmas is magic for the kids. When it stops being magic, I have my eye on one of those shiny foil trees from Charlie Brown Christmas. Preferably with a rotating stand. 

But for now, I wouldn't skip the piney smell for anything. It makes all of this better:

In our family, we have a tradition of having a special ornament every year that represents something we did or experienced. It makes decorating the tree even more fun when you remember where each special ornament came from. This year's ornament was from our Disneyland vacation. When I look at that magical glow, I almost forget the incident in the line for Peter Pan. Almost.

The finished product, decorated mostly by children:

And, because the kids asked, and asked, and asked, we decorated sugar cookies this year. My back is aching and it only took approximately three hours to produce cutouts and frosting (which, to be fair, included making and decorating Jane's birthday cookies for preschool) but it was totally worth it to allow my kids the magic of Christmas sugar cookie decorating.

The sprinkles stayed in the cupboard for two reasons:

1) We already had a frosting mess to clean up and I wasn't about to add sprinkles to the party, and

2) M&M's are one of the most delicious foods on earth AND they serve as lovely tree ornaments as well as Rudolf noses. 

Argue with that.

Thanks to ample help from Chris, the magic of Christmas is alive and well. Now if only I could figure out that last gift on my list. If you happen to be a young father/professional/gamer/techie/bigfoot enthusiast (or are tuned into the needs of such) please leave suggestions in the comment section.