You guys, we're only a handful of days into December, and I've already got a Christmas on the books.  To be honest, we had this one wrapped up, bow-tied, unwrapped, and the wrapping paper in the garbage before November 30th. How's that for efficiency, eh?

It seems that for us, December is a little on the busy side. Just about nothing worked for all parties except the weekend of Thanksgiving. So we got our turkey on, and then a few days later, broke into the presents. Basically every kid's dream came true. Christmas came early this year.


I always want to make Christmas into this magical thing, swirling with just the right kind of snow and bright twinkling lights and a hundred advent calendars filled with cheap chocolate. I mean, it's not -- except that advent calendar bit, I always get one of those -- but it is a whole lot of other good things. I think I've come to terms that the holidays are just never going to be what they were circa 1992 when I had important things like American Girls and Tickle Me Elmos to look forward to, but that doesn't negate the very real, very good things about Christmas circa right now.

Things like mimosas and enchiladas on the Christmas menu.
That's champagne you guys. Ryan is chugging champagne. Much classy.
And like my clever in-laws who always find a new way to give the kids cash for Christmas. Me included. 



And you guys -- things like BeanBoozled.

So here's the fix: you buy this box of jellybeans in which case there are two beans that look identical. One is something normal, like coconut. If you get that one, you go glen-coco. But the other one is something completely and totally disgusting, like say baby wipes.

It's a very real risk in every bite. So we played. Obviously.



 And if you're curious -- that's Sebastian delightfully munching on a barf flavored bean. Cheerful, no?

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I digress, onto other good things. Albeit slightly less funny, but much more snugly. You know my favorites: small awesomes.




Um, hello? Did you know that they're still making Babysitter Club books?! Except now they're graphic novels. Be still my Claudia loving heart!

Full disclosure -- I still have my BSC books. I have glossy, semi-vignetty plans to bond with my future daughters over these books. They defined my tween-hood and I'll be damned if I don't have conversations someday along the lines of "so, do you feel more like a MaryAnn or a Dawn? I've always been a little bit of a Stacey, myself."







Ah, siblings. True magic.





And finally, I leave you with this:

I swear I take this photo at every Hodges' event. It's the part where my mother-in-law says "I'm not going to cry this year."

So I grab my camera, because she's about to cry.



Don't freak out -- it's a good cry.

Cheers to the holiday season folks. May the mimosas be strong and the music be cheery. Over here, Ryan and I are singing "Alllllll I want for Christmas is youuuu-hooooo" -- it's a song to our new house, but I'll save that update for another time.