it's beginning to sound a lot like christmas

Since E has been asking pretty much every day when we are going to decorate for Christmas, I thought I'd surprise her yesterday by putting up a few things for when she got home from school. (Oh, the joys of working from home...) So, I replaced a couple of our hanging pictures with a Let it Snow sign, a jingle bell wreath, and a little Santa Claus; broke out the Christmas books; and put our mini tabletop tree on the kitchen island.

While E was very very very excited for these things, she loved the singing bears the most. The singing bears are two teddy bears dressed up in winter clothes. When you squeeze the girl bear's paw, they start singing "Winter Wonderland" and bobbing along to the music. This was given to us by a family friend who obviously hates me for Christmas when E was born. We listened to the high-pitched strains of "Winter Wonderland" approximately eleventy thousand times last night before bed.

Not to be outdone, A has her own favorite Christmas decoration. This would be the sleigh bells that I hung on the pantry doorknob. Shaking the bells kept her occupied for at least 5 minutes so I was able to get some of dinner prepared in relative peace.

And, after dinner, we had Slacker family craft. The girls colored pieces of paper that we cut into strips and made a paper chain to decorate the tree on the kitchen island. After the girls went to bed, I "repurposed" an art project that E had brought home from school to make a little star topper for the tree. It looks really cute!

E's Christmas enthusiasm is definitely rubbing off on me. This weekend, we're tackling decorating the outside of the house and perhaps even getting a Christmas tree. And on the way to work, I even put on the radio station that plays all Christmas music all the time. I used to be a bit bah-humbug about this holiday...but I must say that seeing the magic of the holiday through E's eyes has really changed my tune...literally.