Getting ready for Santa!

It is such a busy time of year - get your tree, decorate the tree, buy some gifts, wrap your gifts, visit with Santa, buy more gifts...it seems to never end - until December 25th actually arrives. We are excited for Santa in our house this year. Ian squeals with delight whenever a package arrives at our door, but is quickly saddened when he is told we have to wait to open it:(

We headed out a couple of weekends ago to get our tree. I like getting our tree early because I want to have a few weeks to enjoy it! We headed back to Flower Bin since we have had such good luck in the past. I have to admit I was a little disappointed in their selection this year. It seemed like every tree I liked was $100 and they typically have a good selection of affordable trees. Not so much this year. Oh well - it was also colder than I thought it was and I was feeling like the worst mother ever because my child was not dressed appropriately. We did some quick browsing and picked the first one in our price range. We all needed to get out of the cold! Ian didn't mind though - he was having fun catching snowflakes on his tongue.


My co-worker told me about this mixture she used on her tree last year to help preserve it and I wanted to give it a try. Our tree is usually dried out by Day 2 so I figured anything that might help us is worth a shot. Maybe you'll want to use it next year on your tree:

2 gallons hot water

2 C. Karo syrup

2 oz. bleach

2 pinches epsom salt

1/2 t. Borax

1 t. Chelated Iron

Combine these ingredients in a large bucket and let your tree soak for at least 24 hours. Ours ended up soaking for almost 48 hours and the mixture even froze a bit in our garage. Didn't seem to matter though. We truly noticed a difference - especially in the first week.

Ian was very excited to help us decorate this year! We decorated in phases just because it was too exhausting to try and get it all done at once when we had to keep all eyes/hands on him. It was fun though! We put the lights on first and Ian helped Daddy put the star on top before heading to bed. The next night we tackled decorations and our countdown to Santa. At first I didn't like our tree - it is the shortest tree we have ever had and it just wasn't that pretty. But you'd never know with a few strands of lights and some ornaments.

As if decorating a tree wasn't enough to cram into one holiday weekend we also decided to take Ian to see Santa. Last year we took him to our local mall and while that was fine, the cost of the pictures was ridiculous. I decided this year I would try to be more proactive. Thus, Bass Pro Shops for a free photo with Santa! I saw an ad on TV and thought we should give it a shot. When you arrive you get a Bass Pass which gives you a time to start lining up. Fortunately, we got there rather early but it was still a 3 hour adventure by the time all was said and done. They had a Santa's Wonderland to entertain the kids while waiting for their picture. Most of it was geared towards older children, but Ian did enjoy playing with the fake snow and hanging out in the snowball tent. That is until one of the older kids knocked him down - it was game over at that point. So, we ventured throughout the rest of the store. It is huge! Ian loved the Arctic Cat display and all he wanted to do was climb on each one to test it out.

Finally at 10:30 it was our turn to get in line. I knew this was going to be the toughest part because there was so much activity around and he wasn't interested in waiting. I tried to appease him with snacks and that worked for a little bit. The line did go quicker than I thought it would and after all, I was doing this for a free picture so it wasn't like I could do a lot of complaining. I thought they did a great job organizing it so you didn't have lines wrapping around the entire store. Plus, there were tent displays and a giant aquarium that helped entertain as well. We were rapidly approaching nap time and I just kept praying that we would make it in enought time and sure enough - as soon as Casey sat Ian on Santa's lap he knew what to do! Smile:) All the craziness was definitely worth the free picture with Santa and his reindeer!