Christmastime - Paperblog

Yesterday I created a reader survey for y’all to help me improve my blog in 2015, and I realized something: I’ve been so focused on wearing a dress every day that I’ve been feeling like I have to always post a dress on my blog every day this December, and I haven’t been getting to share all of the other wonderful things that have gone on. Namely, that it’s Asa’s very first Christmas.

I feel as though I’ve been waiting for the new year to give me permission to move on to improving one of the biggest things I see that needs work — posting more than just style — and it’s been burning me out. I’m getting tired of getting dressed, of writing posts, of talking about what I’m wearing or trying to think up text to go with the endless pictures of me in a dress…

So, instead of waiting for the new year, why not start now? It’s Christmas Eve, and it’s the perfect time to share all of Asa’s (and our) Christmas adventures thus far. The first really Christmassy thing we did this year was far, far later than is the norm for us; on December 14, we finally got ourselves a Christmas tree! Can you believe we waited until ten days before Christmas to finally get the tree? I can’t. Usually, we go out the day after Thanksgiving. But we didn’t have a car to haul a tree, and then we were too tired after my husband got off work, and finally we gave up and just went to a tree lot instead of a tree cutting place and chose a pre-cut tree.

It was bitingly cold and at the end of the day and dark, but oh, so fun! Asa was fascinated by the Christmas lights hanging above the trees.

Then, the next time we went to my mother-in-law’s house, she had her tree up and he was not allowed to go in. So he forlornly sat watching his older cousins play through the windows until one of them came to entertain him by jumping and making faces on the other side.

My mother-in-law’s comment when she saw him standing there was “Oh, look at that poor little boy and his spindly little legs.”

We obviously need to feed him more. We also made a huge batch of Gingerbread cookies, because my husband needed them. (Yes, needed.) Apparently, Gingerbread is very Christmassy to him; to me, it’s those fruit-flavored chocolate oranges and icing-covered sugar cookies. But I’m doing my best to fight the sugar demons this season (and mostly failing) so I haven’t made those yet.

I have made Snickerdoodles. They may have all been eaten in two days time.

And I made a few things from my DIY gift list, most of which are wrapped.

I know. It’s Christmas Eve and I haven’t wrapped all of my presents yet. In my defense, I ran out of wrapping paper! And I got my husband’s and Asa’s presents wrapped, so… that’s good enough, right?

Most excitingly, though, while we were at the history museum yesterday, guess who Asa met?

You got it! Santa! We aren’t going to raise our kids to believe in Santa, but I still think it’s a fun tradition that we might do, having them take pictures with Santa every year. I hope to explain that Santa was once a real person who was a good man, and that the Santa of today is just a tradition created in order to remember St. Nickolas, but that he isn’t the real reason for the season.

We’ll see how well it goes. I mean, if I do well they could turn out like me and blab to all of their younger and totally-believing-in-Santa cousins that he’s not real. Or, you know, we could also teach them to respect what other parents teach their kids, and not ruin some child’s Christmas. Ha!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas week! Tomorrow is CHRISTMAS!

(Check on Facebook or Instagram to see today and tomorrow’s dresses)