Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

At the Christmas Tree Lot

Boy Scout: Hi, welcome to troop 578's Christmas Tree lot. We've got some beautiful Douglas Firs this year.

Nick: I literally want the cheapest tree you've got.

Boy Scout: Right this way sir.

Nick: Do you have anything smaller? Cheaper?

Boy Scout: That one in the corner might be a little smaller.

Nick: We'll take it.

This year we did our own "fake" Christmas a few days before we drove to California. Evelyn loved it.  Nick loved it. And I'm pretty sure Anna loved it. I loved being able to say, "Remember, you have to be good so that Santa will come to our house," whenever she was being bad the whole month of December. Bribery works wonders with my stubborn child and come Juan-uary I had to re-evaluate my parenting since Santa was out of the picture.

It was a simple but incredibly fun Christmas Day. I can't wait to start having Christmas in our own house with some of our own Smart-Jordan traditions.

Speaking of traditions, here's one we've stolen from Nick's family - Christmas Eve jammies. This tradition goes perfectly well with frosting sugar cookies on Christmas Eve like the Smarts.

Elastic waistband jammies + cookies = Christmas.

I love having little kids because you can give them an amazing Christmas for $30. 

You just wrap everything separately and it looks like a ton of stuff.

Ev's gift from Grandma and Grandpa Smart. She literally runs to her art desk first thing every morning. She loves it. We've got a little artist on our hands. Right now she's more of a Picasso but I'm crossing my fingers for a Rembrandt someday.

Anna gave Nick and I the best gift ever.

Baby chub.

And the weirdest thing is, she never seems to tire of us kissing her fat. It is literally my favorite pastime. In fact, if I had to fill out an "About Me" sheet, my pastimes would include:

1. Kissing baby fat

2. Pretending to eat play food

3. Changing diapers

4. Nursing

Because sometimes I feel like that's all I do.

Merry Christmas!