Christmas Bags

So glad you guys liked the pumpkin pictures! I tell ya, those kids can make the weirdest expressions. They have to get it from their dad, because I don't make funny faces in pictures at all.

When Sara was about 4 and I was about, well, awesome, Sara would go on and on and on and on about "how many more days until Christmas?" (which is how she is with everything even now) and Mom was like, "Oh my gosh, Christmas will be here when it's here!" But to help poor little Sara with the wait, Mom started the Christmas Calendar. It was a chimney about two feet tall and had little drawers all the way up with the numbers 1 - 24 on them. Mrs. Claus was at the very top, I distinctly remember. On December 1, we got to open a drawer and there was a little surprise inside. On December 2, we opened the second drawer...see how it works...until we got to the very top and Mrs. Claus. Sometimes, it was a piece of candy for both of us, sometimes it was a Hello Kitty mini-pencil set or erasers. It helped Sara cope with the long days of December until Christmas.

When Noah came along, Mom had to start doing bags because she couldn't fit our prizes in the drawers anymore. And when Peter came along, she put all of the bags in an old thing that looks like an ancient laundry basket with a lid on top. I have no idea what it is, but it held the bags. And every morning, we'd rush to open the bag and whoever opened it got to pass out the prizes. Sometimes, it was chocolate, sometimes it was fun Christmas socks, sometimes it was a mini-nativity, sometimes it was one of those hard trick puzzle things...every day it was something different. And we couldn't open the bag until everybody was up, which was laaaaaaame because Sara was SO SLOW getting ready.

We had the bags all through middle school, high school, and yes...college. Mom would send the bags back to school with us during Fall break and we couldn't open them until December 1. Of course, our roommates would make fun of us, but as sure as the sun sets, every December morning, they'd ask, "Hey, what'd you get in the bag this morning? Look. What's in it?? Openitopenitopenit!!" The year you graduated college was your last year and it was DEVASTATING. So, David and I started doing the bags for each other because I was having withdrawals. Last year was the last year that I would ever have a brown paper Christmas bag, because now, we're continuing the tradition for our kids and I am so excited! Last night, David and I numbered the bags and filled them with goodies. The $1 section at Target was perfect for this. David was in charge of labeling the even numbered bags. Sweet thing probably had to throw away 7 bags. Even numbers, CPA...even numbers. But, we got it done.

This morning, the girls opened up number "Uyun" and their surprise was A TIGER! Not a real one. That would be inhumane to keep him in a paper bag overnight. They love little animals and people figurines and Target had a whole section of zoo animals. I forgot what was in each day, so I'm excited to be surprised with them.

It's December, y'all! Crank up the carols!!