The Christmas Countdown Begins!
Welcome to December 1st, the day the chocolate advent calendars begin and we send our little darlings to school hyped up on sugar. 
I am a huge Christmas fan. I love seeing all the displays when I go shopping. I love belting out the songs. Cooking, decorating for it, you name it, I probably love it. As a parent, I've developed (with my husband who shakes his head alot) some traditions that I hope my children will pass on.
1. We decorate early! Starting mid to late November, the tinsel and tree goes up and my house transforms into a gaudy wonderland. (please note though by December 27th, I pull it all down lol)
2. Advent calendars are a must. Each kids gets one (or if they end up on a really good sale, 2 ) and they never miss a day. I also have a fabric calendar the kids fight over as they all love moving the little Santa into his new pocket.
3. We bake — three to five treats are prepped ahead of time to pull out for visitors.
4. Family Get-together. We hold that the weekend before Christmas and have my husbands close family over for games, presents for the kids and a belt loosening dinner. Oh and Santa makes a visit!
5. Santa visits our house every year for pictures with the kids. How do you ask? I bribe him with treats and to all the kids amazement he never misses our party.
6. We go online and play a whack of holiday games. Most are corny but the kids love it.
7. Movies! I PVR everything there is that the kids might like and then we watch it. My husband and I often giggle over the Christmas specials of our youth. Rudolph is a classic, but my new favorite is Santa Vs the Snowman. Too funny.
8. We wrap and wrap some more. My kids cackle as they wind tape around the gifts. We like to let them buy something for each other, us and their grandparents. The things they choose can be hilarious like the year Grandma got wetwipes because she likes to clean. lol
9. We watch the Christmas parade just because.
10. The kids all write a list to Santa with the bigger ones helping their little sister. I also make them at this time go through their current toys to donate the unused ones to charity.
Whew, so that's my top ten countdown list to Christmas Eve. Stay tuned as I tell you why I don't make a turkey Christmas day and what I've substituted it for instead. It will shock you.
