Getting Festive.

I decided to decorate early this year. REALLY early. The nice thing was once the task was complete I had such a relaxing holiday season, and the truth is that I never get tired of Christmas decorations! I didn't put it all up this year, but I have so enjoyed all my little shiny things this season.

This is the big boy in the living room. I can't remember if it's 8' or 9', but it's about 12' by the time I'm through with it. This year I propped it up on some bins underneath the tree stand to allow extra room for presents-- an old trick of Mom's that I've stolen. It was nice that the tree actually didn't fall from its precarious position and kill one of us.

The Twelve Days of Christmas tree in the kitchen, along with "two ray-deer," which are Ella's new favorite things.

I love decorating the mantles at Christmas. My strategy is to throw stuff up there until it starts falling off. That's when you know you're done.

Why yes, those are birds in in the stockings. What, is that weird?

Here's the mantle in the parlor. I still love the nativity that my MIL Laura got me for our 1st Christmas.

I like dressing up my horse with a bow. Russ likes rearranging the Noel letters to say as many words as he can think of. SO clever.

Seasons Change.

Ella and I changed out her summer clothes for winter ones a few weeks ago. She was a big help as I'm sure most toddlers are with this type of task!

I'm pretty fond of her and I tend to look for reasons to get sentimental over her growing up. When we put all of these clothes in her closet it hit me once again how much she's grown in two short years. Not because they're bigger, but because they're not baby clothes anymore.

I used to complain that most of her clothes were pink. Not that I'm not a fan of pink! I thought it would be nice to have a little variety. When I realized that we have that now, and that it's because she no longer shops in the baby section it hit like a ton of bricks. She's not a baby anymore.

Quote du Jour.

"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult." --Charlotte Whitton

Quote du Jour.

What's in the well comes up in the bucket.

Ella's Room.

This is it-- the baby boudoir. Voulez-vous dormir avec Ella, c'est soir? I've been meaning to take pictures of her nursery since, well, before she was born. Finally I took a couple of minutes to do so. It's quite a small room, but a whole lot of love went into creating a special space for my darling daughter.

Before you go to Properties to adjust the color on your screen, let me go ahead and tell you that it's pink. Lace panels, embroidered flowers, and shabby chic frames made sense at the time. One more side effect of those lovely pregnancy hormones!

"They" may say that newborns don't have control of muscle groups and therefore cannot conjure facial expressions, but my mother and I both swear that when we carried Ella into her room for the first time, the look on her face said something akin to, "What on God's green Earth is this place?" Awe. Disbelief. Disgust. Priceless!

Special credit goes to Ella's Gramma Laura for the team effort on the stripes. I don't know if we ever did get them measured correctly, but they still turned out just fine.

Mimi may say that babies don't need satin sheets, but she's the one who bought the pink flamingos! I guess I came by it honest...

My Goodnight.

Do you have a bedtime routine? They say that a bedtime routine is good for babies to help them know that it's time to sleep. I find that mine is growing longer as I struggle to hold on to the last vestiges of the day with Ella.

Good night, baby darling. (Kiss on the left cheek.) Sleep tight. (Kiss between the eyes.) I'll see you in the morning. (Eskimo kisses, and she giggles.) I love you. (Two more kisses on the cheek.) Sleep well, beautiful. (Brushing her hair away from her face and cupping those chubby cheeks in my hands.)

Mama loves you as I finally close the door and back away.

Will she ever remember the thousands of soft words spoken faintly into the darkness with my whole heart? I hope they will somehow be kept in a quiet corner of her subconscious mind so that she will, on some level, know how much I love her.