A Metzgar Christmas...

Christmas at our house is pretty simple.

A few decorations here and there.
I am adding more each year with the after clearance sales.
We I put two trees up, but I would like to add 2 more.
You can find trees cheap at yard sales. People are selling them dirt cheap
during the summer because Christmas seems a long time away.
I haven't checked after Christmas tree sales in a few years,
so I'm hoping to be happily surprised. I would like to have a white one (I think),
one for Emma's room, and for my bedroom.
Have you ever seen a tree decorated in all candy ornaments and garland?! I have, and I fell in love! I haven't seen many candy themed ornaments lately. I would love to have a tree full! So if you see a candy theme going on anywhere let me know. Look at these things I found..

candy garland
and candy lights!

I love them!

I am ashamed that I didn't include our nativity in my pictures above. That is what Christmas is all about. But it's upstairs, and I was too lazy busy to go up there.

On my behalf, the nativity isn't the only thing I left out. There's a tree up stairs and some more small stuff. I would actually like to get another, real nativity set for the living room. That would look fabulous displayed on the antique buffet that I don't have yet. (But I am looking everywhere for! Hold on buffet, I'm coming for you soon!) O.k. back to the nativity, our is the toy one. The kids like playing with it. Emma pretends to be the angels and makes up songs about baby Jesus being born and bright stars in the sky. Maddox likes the wisemen, I keep finding them in his room. And Tanner likes to knock them all over like a bowling game.

Notice my one black and white picture. It's our elf. Our elf on a shelf. He's new to us this year. He comes with a cute book saying that he is from the north pole and Santa's official helper. He is here to watch over and listen to the kids all day, then flys back to Santa at night to report. Each morning he is perched in a new spot. Well, that is if we don't forget to move him. Which we have. So we distract the kids until we can sneak him somewhere else. My kids are always timid and scared about things that other kids wouldn't necessarily be scared of. The first night the Elf showed up, Emma was terrified. She wouldn't leave Mark's side and was near tears. She was wondering how he would get in our house. We told her it wasn't real, that it was just a hide and seek game. I know some of you are gasping right now. How could you tell her that. Well, it's because of what I said earlier. The reason for the season is CHRIST. We have never focused alot on Santa. Even when Emma was smaller, we told her that daddy was her Santa.

Kids believe (or pretend to believe) in Santa because it's fun. It's magic. It's mystery and surprise. At our house we do not put gifts under our tree until Christmas morning because they would get ripped open.

So, if my kid is the one that tells your kid that Santa isn't real, well....sorry. But it's true. I would never tell my kids to go blab things like that to others. So no worries, kindergarten friends! I told Emma that lots of kids have these elves and they think they are real so we should not tell other kids that it's just a game.

I couldn't help but laugh, when the very next morning, I walk out in my pajamas to find Emma and Maddox sitting on the couch and Emma says, "I told Maddox it wasn't real." :) Anytime our kids ask us if Santa is real, we just say, "what do you think?" I heard someone speak about this once before. She said when her kids were ready to here that Santa was not real, she would whisper to them that their daddy was their Santa because he loved them and wanted to make them happy. And her kids were so excited that their daddy, that they loved, had been their Santa. But she also told that particular kid that it was a secret from the younger siblings for now. I think that is very cute.

Well, that was a big spill for just showing you Christmas around our house!
Thanks for hanging in there.

This is our life...