The Bailey Brag

Christmas is in the air around the Bailey house. I feel like there’s a new project every day. We haven’t been shopping once this year but instead are replacing all our time baking and painting and doing fun stuff. I love it. I did panic just a bit a couple days ago when I realized that despite my kid’s not requesting much in the way of gifts, they still did write a few things down and I had not purchased one item. So I took about an hour or so while they played outside in the snow on Monday to do some cyber shopping and finished in just over an hour still drinking hot coffee and wearing my pajamas. It was awesome. I chose really cheap shipping despite the multiple warnings they gave me about making sure I chose the right method in order to receive our goodies before the big day (which is all hogwash to try and pry more money out of you) and since my kids know santa isn’t real then they wouldn’t even care if something came a couple days late. By the time I went to bed Monday night, I had received shipping notices for everything and it will all be here days before Christmas. Oh yea.

So what have we been up to? Well, we made and decorated cookies a few days ago (see photos in my previous post). It was fun and no one was killed in the process which was a plus. I have issues with flour and sugar and the potential mess it all can make along with letting little boys go nuts with it and slosh it all out of the bowl. I micromanage them big time when we do things like that as a family. I can’t help it. I have issues. But I did do something that I am very proud of….I let them paint!! Yes, I did. And as I realized the other day that I am turning 34 years old this month, have been a mother for almost 10 years now and am beginning to even dress a bit more matronly (because it is freakin’ comfortable and practical) that I do not own a single nativity set. Nope. Not one. Some people I know have oodles of them but I haven’t one. Well, I do now. And it is the best one in the world. Why is it the best? Because my sweet boys painted it all by themselves. I stopped in Hobby Lobby a week or more ago (vowing that would be my very last trip to Turkey creek until after the holidays so since Earthfare is there I am not sure how we are going to eat but we’ll figure it out) and they had all their Christmas crafts and decorations 50% off. I saw the cutest unfinished wood nativity set that was originally $35 (which I got for $17.50) that you could paint and knew I had to have it. I hope to collect a few more nativity sets over the years because I love them but I will never forget that my very first one was hand painted by all my sweeties. They did a fabulous job, too. I completely let them have at it and didn’t try and manage them at all. Mama’s comin’ around. Slowly but surely.