With Christmas only a few days away, I thought it might be fun to just share a few of my favourite things about the holidays.  Or perhaps it’s an excuse to avoid all the cleaning I SHOULD be doing.  All I can say, is thank goodness I am finished my shopping!!

Every year I get so excited for Christmas tree day.  Which usually turns out to be an all day decorating event.  I think that it’s awesome that we have an Incredible Hulk ornament on our tree.  And my little mouse on the roll of 35mm film (a classic).  And I love that all the Santa’s MUST go on the same branch.  (They do it to mess with me, I know it!)  And of course, my favourite are the hand-made ones that come home from school. 

But to get into the Christmas spirit – I MUST have some good Christmas music playing!  Every year we start off our Christmas tree decorating by throwing on Kenny & Dolly’s “Once upon a Christmas”.  I listened to it every Christmas as a kid; and was so happy to find it on CD a few years ago.  Oh, and we can’t forget about great Christmas movies!  We watch the same ones almost every year.  But there are some that are definitely more favourites than others.  The kids of course love Elf, but my all time FAVOURITE is the Family Stone.  I don’t know if there could be a more perfect movie. 

Perhaps I like the holidays to have the excuse to decorate things that I wouldn’t normally decorate. (Or maybe I just feel like I can get away with it better!)

I also love my home-made stockings. The cats stockings are my favourites. Heehee. I think the kids almost are more excited about what Santa put in the cats stockings than their own!!

I love doing Christmas activities with the kids.  This year we painted ornaments (so much fun!) and constructed a little Gingerbread masterpiece.  They TOTALLY try to mess with me by putting two jellybeans of the same colour beside each other!! 

It has to SMELL like Christmas too!  I admit, I LOVE Bath and Body Works.  I can spend hours in that store picking out the perfect scent.  And I settled on Mistletoe Kiss.  It’s a very fresh Christmassy smell.

I’ll admit it – I’m NOT much of a baker.  I’m in awe of people who whip up these amazing little treats for the holidays.  I usually end up having to make two batches because the first one messed up in some way.  Or giving up completely!  But I DO like to decorate.  This year I managed to make THREE different things, without messing any of them up.  Yay me!  I think the problem is that I’m always up for trying something new, and maybe I should stick to the tried and tested ones.  Heehee.  We’ve got decorated sugar cookies and reindeer peanut butter cookies.  (If you’re counting, I also made a peanut butter marshmallow treat (or dainties as my family always called them) – but the photo didn’t look very appetizing. )  I had some great testers too!

And any excuse to put up coloured lights all over the house is good for me!  I just love the glow of our tree.

Seems like Christmas will be here before you know it – and then over in the blink of an eye.  Take the time to enjoy it!  I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!  I’m excited to see what 2012 brings!! 

– Kim