Christmas with 3 under 3

This Christmas season is very special to us, and even more so as we get to experience it through the eyes of our three-year-old daughter. But, that also means we have a seventeen month old and a one-and-half month old in tow, which limits our celebrations.

I have to be honest, our house looks quite sparse in terms of decorations.

We have stockings:

And we have a Christmas tree:

But notice something about the tree? Yup. It's missing ornaments. We have a handful of homemade ornaments at Miss K's level, but otherwise it's a naked tree.

As a perfectionist, this year is tough on me.

But, I just didn't want to yell.  Funny enough, as I reflect upon that same article, I wouldn't get out of bed if "not yelling" was my only criteria/reason for not doing things this year. Realistically, I had to pace myself. We have activities planned that I hope will be traditions, and will make memories - and reinforce other ones - without causing too much added stress to a household where all of the littles need help. All of the time.

There's one other things we have this year:

It's our version of Tsh's Easy, no-Frills Advent Calendar.

I looked at the calendar, and attempted to incorporate activities we were already doing, and then added a few more. We even have a few BONUS activities - as Main Street's Christmas tree was lit in November (Miss K - my soon-to-be three-year-old has been asking about it since last January. Not even kidding), and her birthday part is AFTER Christmas this year (again - the whole not yelling thing as important).

Other activities include:
-decorate Christmas tree
-maintaining our Friday family movie night - Elf, Dad's choice!, and A Charlie Brown Christmas
-make perogies (with all of the aunties - and the cousins showed up too!)
-deliver food to the Foodbank
-shop for & deliver Christmas Hamper Toy
-Church Christmas Concert
-make Nuts & Bolts (an easy "dump" activity)
-make cornstarch & baking soda homemade ornaments (so easy & AWESOME!)
-deliver cookies
-candy cane hot chocolate
-"do you wanna build a snowman?!"
-tobogganing
-Christmas train ride

Easy activities. Many of which we were doing already, but now we have anticipation each morning. And? I can switch them around - for instance when there was NO snow on the day we wanted to go tobogganing. And, because I looked ahead, I'm able to "call in the reinforcements" (yay Grandparents!) for the activities that will need a little extra help - like the train ride.

I can't promise I won't yell this year. Mischief abounds around here. But I'm trying not to yell more than normal. :)