Deck the halls with lots'a babies.

My Christmas spirit has been ascending slowly. Does anybody else feel as though not only Christmas, but winter, have just completely snuck up on you & basically yelled, "HO HO HO, BITCH!" ... No? Just me?

I wait all year for this time of year. My best & most cherished childhood memories are from Christmas. I believed in Santa Claus until I was 12 years old (blame my mother! She was an enabler!). Everything about Christmas was magical & wonderful & warm. I want, more than anything, for my children to have the same feelings & to make our own magical memories.

It's hard, but I sometimes need to step back & let them go a little crazy. Let them shout & jump around & be excited. I am a control freak, in every sense of the word. I have little tolerance for chaos & I will humbly admit that I lack any amount of patience. Sometimes, I worry that I am too hard on my kids. Until Evelyn slaps Gabe in the face & he pushes her over a chair.. Then it's on & the mom voice comes out. Ha. ANYWAY. Christmas is the perfect reminder that they're kids. They're going to act a fool every once & a while. I have got to just let go, sometimes.

Getting to the point, we had a lot of fun this afternoon. I got them dressed up & let them play with a strand of lights in front of the tree. Meanwhile, I went stealth mode & snapped some pictures. The result was enough to melt me into a giant puddle all over the floor. The true beauty is that all the pictures were candid. Just my beautiful children being amazed that they were allowed to play with this giant strand of glowing lights.

I cannot wait for Christmas morning with this crazy crew.