Deck the Halls

Well, like I said, after Matt's nap the other day I asked him if he wanted to help me start decorating for Christmas. Enthusiastically, he said yes. We opened up all of the closets in the hallway and got out all my huge plastic tubs full of Christmas decor and set to work. Matthew said, "Whoa Mommy! Look at all these things! What you going to do with this? Where you gonna put that snowman? Do these lights come on?" The questions never ended, but it was really adorable to see how excited he got over discovering the singing snowmen all over again and unwrapping all my holiday candles.

He carries around my candles like they're trophies. "Mmmm...this one smells good Mommy. It smells like a Christmas tree. I think I'm gonna go put it over here on this table." I put on my Christmas music as we were decorating and he enjoyed that for awhile until he was ready to revisit his old favorites on his own playlist again for the millionth time.

This year, I'm not sure if my ceramic manger scene is going to survive. Last year Matt didn't really touch it even though it was within his grasp. This year he thinks it's fun to rearrange all the figurines and namely to move baby Jesus from Mary's arms to his "crib" as he calls it. I just hold my breath every time he touches it. It's really cute to watch though and I hate to tell him no because he stands there and tells me so tenderly that Mary is giving Jesus kisses. I've tried to encourage him to play with the wooden nativity scene that I have but apparently that one just doesn't have the same charm that the breakable one does. Eventually I heard Matt go get his "big steps" so he could reach all my things that were up on the table better as he said. He stood there for the longest time playing with the new bear Grandma gave him that tells the Night Before Christmas story, rearranging the wooden nativity scene, and huffing my Christmas candle. The kid was in heaven.

Today after nap time we plan to go get our Christmas tree. I think Matt's head will explode.