folly jolly

photo copyrighted: i bought it from a sweet fundraiser here

all week long the girls have been singing christmas tunes. i especially love abby's interpretations of the lyrics. our favorite is, "deck! the halls with folly jolly! falalalalalalalala!"

this season has been wonderful and hard all at the same time. maybe that's what christmas is always like for parents? or real adults? i'm still trying to figure it out. like how do you balance out the true meaning of christmas and all the other hubub? how do you teach your kids to care more about giving then receiving? currently we are reading a scripture from luke and singing a hymn every night, but it doesn't seem to really be sinking in. i can't really blame them though. that santa thing is one big enchilada to little kiddies. lucy is POSITIVE she hears sleigh bells at night all the time.

ty and i watched While You Were Sleeping last night while I wrapped presents. it is so cute to hear him chuckle for an hour and a half straight. some of our favorite quotes we use are from that film.

i'm almost done wrapping as i'm taking a proactive approach to christmas this year. i have the habit of waiting to do everything last minute, strange no? and it makes me one crazy lady on the holidays. like staying up till 2am wrapping christmas eve? no bueno. so i'm consolidating, presents first. baking next (this is all in hopes of consuming less calories) and my dream is that christmas eve we just enjoy family and go to bed. voila! sounds so simple.

but when i went to bed last night i felt so light knowing that all those presents were wrapped and pretty and ready (not that there is a lot, but i'm a pretty crappy wrapper and it takes me forever to make it look nice, and i still slap on tape everywhere).  and it was like the light bulb went off. "duh! annie, if you do this every year you won't be so stressed out!"

i hope it works.