The Bucket List Update #1 Edition

What. a. week. Seriously, there has been SO much holiday stuff going on that I've been an entire day ahead of myself all week. Tuesday I thought was Wednesday, Wednesday I thought was Thursday, and so on. Welcome, holiday season!!

First. Have you noticed the new blog design? I'm in love with it. I've been meaning to update the look for the longest time, and finally found a design I had to have. Fresh. Clean. Up to date. Gold flecks. I'm just swooning over it.

Ok. On to this week and all of its action packed glory. Typically I try to keep each top moment short and sweet, but whew, we've just done so much!

We've been checking things off our Winter Bucket List like you wouldn't believe.

1. The tree!
We FINALLY got our tree up and decorated.

Marcus is really 'getting' Christmas this year, and it's been simply MAGICAL to see it all through his eyes. He was such a good helper putting ornaments on the tree, and only one ended up broken, so I call that a success.

2. Ornaments.
I've been meaning to link up this week with fellow bloggers to share some of our ornaments, but again, so. much. stuff - especially in the blogging world right now. Ornaments are a big deal in our house. We gift them every year, we pick them up each time we go anywhere to commemorate our travels, we get them when any life milestone occurs.
I love taking each one out and reminiscing about from where it came and the story behind each.

Left side top to bottom: || Christmas was never about the gifts / on the flip side / it's always been about His presence. || A Marcus original - made thanks to preschool. || Marcus' First Christmas ornament. Julia should have a similar one on the tree soon! || An actual light from the Kansas City Plaza Lights. If you've been to KC during this time of year you know about the Plaza Lights.
Right side, top to bottom: || Our wedding cake topper - I picked out a topper specifically knowing I wanted to use it as an ornament || Dorothy's Ruby slipper - a nod to Kansas, and there's no place like home || This one I picked up while shopping with my mom last year, there's not a whole lot behind it besides the fact that it's a Santa Merman and I didn't think I'd find anything like that except for here! || An ornament from this year's trip to Cabo - we always pick up an ornament anytime we're on vacation!

After we finished decorating Scott asked me which were my favorites. That's impossible to answer. BUT! If I could only choose one it would probably be the maple leaf - our wedding cake topper turned ornament. 

3. Christmas fun!

We are counting down the days to Christmas with several different advent calendars. And, almost nightly we enjoy a cup of hot cocoa.

The chain countdown wasn't on the bucket list, but should have been!

I count down the minutes to bed time, Marcus counts down the minutes till he can get his little mitts around a cup of hot chocolate.

Another item that wasn't on our bucket list but *should* have been, Gingerbread House assembling and decorating!

While Marcus seemingly enjoyed the decorating he was truly just interested in how many pieces of candy I would let him eat before I realized more was going *in* his mouth rather than *on* the house. 

Can you tell which side Marcus decorated all on his own? 

4. Harbor Boat Parade.

In theory, this sounded so awesome. However, we learned the hard way... Our area was about the last on the parade route and we ended up waiting almost TWO HOURS to see any boats. Cue bored and tired 3-year old, a 4-month old who just wanted to nurse, and a husband who had been pulling the longest work hours known to man. I think I apologized to my family six thousands times while we waited and waited. By the time the boats made it to us we were all over the whole idea. We stuck around to see three boats and then we packed up shop. For us it was a serious bust, but I'm so thankful both kids waited around so patiently. Maybe we'll try again next year... Maybe. 

The shortest clip of the boat parade. And, about all we saw. Ha!

5. A Holiday Parade.

The day after the boat parade flop we joined some friends to watch a more traditional holiday parade. I can't say I was overly impressed with it, but the kids had fun waving at every. single. band and car that passed by. 

I love how enthusiastic the kids were with their waving. The verdict is still out on whether or not we will try this again next year. My guess? Probably not... 

And just like that another holiday week is in the books with more bucket list items complete! We have more festive fun lined up for this weekend, and I'm hoping Marcus loves it as much as I'm hoping he will!

Bake a Holiday Treat || Christmas Book Advent Calendar || Drink Hot Chocolate || Play in the Snow || See a Holiday Parade || See a Harbor Holiday Parade || See a Tree Lighting || Visit from Elf on the Shelf, Teu || Zoo Lights Experience

Have a fabulous weekend!