It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Every morning, Cubby gets up and immediately--even before asking to watch Dora--asks if it's time to open Door # Whatever on our advent calendar. For lack of any better ideas the night of November 30, which is when I realized I needed to put some stuff in there, quick, I put a mini candy bar in each one, so my child kicks off every day with a delicious dose of chocolate, while Bear and I look on enviously. (Bear says next year we need to put two candies inside each door, so that Mommy or Daddy can have one, too.) Because of this daily ritual, I am hyper-aware of the fact that today is the 13th...less than two weeks until Christmas. Insert horror music here, because we're not ready!

But, we're getting there. The personalized Dora book we ordered for Cubby from Shutterfly came the other day, and Bear and I got a hearty chuckle from the fact that apparently NO human characters on Dora are allowed to have a neck, including the guest stars:



Last night, we finally decorated our Christmas tree--we got a live one this year, which put an end to the tradition of having the fake one up Thanksgiving weekend, but Bear was right: it smells soooo good and was totally worth borrowing Grandma and Paps' truck to get it:

Here's the finished result, complete with anti-toddler/puppy security fence:


Even kindergarten is getting festive: on Tuesday, as I had begun to freak out about how behind we were on lesson plans, it was announced that the cafeteria supervisor was bringing her alpaca in for a visit. You should have seen me: "Are you freaking kidding me? An ALPACA?! I want to teach math!!" The kids loved it, though...especially the Santa hat!

And here are a couple of pics from our trip to Disneyland the other night...we only went on one ride and mostly just wanted Cubby to see it all decked out. Note to self: never, ever arrive at Disneyland during the Christmas parade again. It took us about 17 hours to get down Main Street, which looked like this (but better in person, of course):

Sleeping Beauty's castle looks incredible:

Now to get the house and gifts ready...twelve days and counting!