December Daily: Pages one, two, three, and four

Day One

Okay so keeping up with this album is more difficult than I expected it to be. I have been recording and taking pictures and stuff but trying to make what I have work in the album in proving to be a bit of a challenge. I've tweaked a few things and managed to get semi caught up. So far there are some pages that I love and others not so much. And that's o.k. I'm learning to embrace imperfection and let it go. Focus on pictures (which I love and take a lot of) and words. Document the memory and move on. Because honestly making these memories, spending time with Mason (and Sophie) is what it's all about.

I had a hard time figuring out how to do the journaling for this. We had two separate events I wanted to document. Even though the first one you see here stringing up the lights happened later in the day it was the first holiday event we did. So I documented it first. I felt the trip to the Mall, riding the train with friends was an important part of our day so I added that as well.

Day Two

Today we decorated the Christmas Tree. It was a lot of fun. I really wanted Mason to help since he expressed and interest in doing so after doing a little bit of decorating at my Mom's on Grandma Sunday. And Mason is such a big helper. I always put a ribbon around our tree and the ribbon I have gives me issues every year and this year I just had it. With two kids wanting my attention and Mason getting bored I said That's it! So I raided my stash of holiday ribbon and came upstairs with a few options. Now this is why I love my son and the honesty of a toddler. I couldn't figure it out and showed each one to Mason and asked his opinion. He picked out the gold one. I wasn't so sure but after putting it up it looked fantastic.

Mason loved helping and just went to town doing his own thing pulling out ornaments (he was careful not to use the breakable ones. Oh how I love that.) and placing them on the tree. He did an excellent job and the tree is absolutely gorgeous this year. Much thanks to my big helper.

Day Three

I'm loving this page.

Journaling reads:

Nothing really holiday related happened today. I had a doctors appointment. The kids were perfectly patient angels despite the long wait. Mason found a new toy and was playing with that. I got down with him showing him how it all worked and he loved that. After a while he had all the ladies in the waiting room in stitches. The car was washed, had it's tune up and full of gas when Mason announced that the car was heading to Target. Oh yeah buddy. And then where is he going? He's already gone to Target mommy. Now he's going to Wegmans. (Gee can you tell where we shop all the time?) That's when the room erupted into laughter. And then my name was called. What a character and conversationalist he is. This trip was definitely the highlight of my day.

Day Four

Today was a day of unexpected joy. We needed to run some errands and while at Macys I stumbled upon the Believe mailbox. They had a table and chairs and cards with Dear Santa on it. Mason had been asking to play for a while and I just needed to find one present for my dad so when I saw this I thought it would be so much fun for Mason, though I had planned on having him write his letter at a later date.

It was funny hearing Mason dictate what he wanted; a jeepy car, corvette, min van, something to carry his cars in, a computer that works, etc. Then he got to place the letter in the big red mailbox all by himself. He loved it.

Watching Mason gave me a glimpse into what we miss about the holidays being adults. The belief and simplicity in the magic of Christmas.