Stressmas Time

It's not often that I admit it but I am this time....I'm stressed out. I have put this huge burden on myself to make Christmas ultra special for Madison. I want her to know and understand the true meaning of Christmas and that it isn't just receiving gifts and sitting on Santa's lap. I want Madison to have the desire to give and to find the joy in giving. I want to create traditions for her that she will one day carry on with her family. I want her to be able to utter the phase "When I was little..."

I know it seems ridiculous to try to do this when she is one. I mean come on, she's really not going to remember anything about this Christmas but I will.  Therefore, I feel this need to begin traditions now so I can tell her of the things we've being doing at Christmas time ever since she was born.  I'm stuffing my stress deep down into my stocking and forging on because we've got memories to make.

We decorated our tree last weekend when Maddie and I returned home from Florida.











But now our tree is rebelling. Wednesday evening the darn thing fell over. All three of us were in Madison's room cleaning out the aquarium and we hear this thud. Ryan checked and sure enough the tree was lying horizontal on the floor. Ornaments, water and pine needles were all over the living room. Needless to say I didn't even attempt to take a picture. Ryan and I were both so annoyed that the freakin' Christmas tree fell over and created a mess for us to clean up. Then on Friday, the freakin' lights on the tree stopped working. So, now we have a dark tree leaning up in the corner with ornaments only half way up because our toddler keeps pulling them off.  She's a bute!



On a positive note, Ryan and I did get all of the presents wrapped up today. Maddie has only unwrapped two of them thus far. Only six more days to go until Christmas and I'm sure the "Unwrapped Present" count will rise.







Madison has received two of the coolest gifts prior to Christmas. The first one is a little people nativity set from her Nana and Pap.



The second is a recordable storybook from her Great Grandma Golda, Maddie calls her G.G. She read the entire book and recorded her voice while she was reading. It is so cute and such a great keepsake for Madison.



I'm anxious for Christmas morning. I can't wait to celebrate the season with our family. Also, I'm a little anxious about getting this freakin' tree out of our house.