Christmas in July

Those of you that know me are probably not surprised to see this. However, I've found that it's actually pretty common to have "Christmas in July" here in Australia. It just makes more sense since it's winter time right now. AND, it's just so cold and there's nothing else to look forward to during the winter here, so I had to do something to look forward to myself.

It's been really fun though. We've had a lot of little activities that are Christmas related. We've cute out snowflakes (which you can see on the window behind the tree), we've made cookies, and done all sorts of Green/Red crafts with the kids, had hot chocolate nights and have been breaking out the Karen Carpenter Christmas music. The other day I made a big poster-size paper tree and paper ornaments and presents and let the kids decorate it on the wall along with a sticker garland. I just have to remind myself that it's OK if it's not perfect because I can get too caught up on it being "just so". The picture of the tree above is not even fully decorated yet like it is now, but I had to hurry and take a picture before things started getting ripped off. Tate had just woken up from his nap and I didn't want to chance it. lol

Teagan was really cute about decorating the tree. He was so excited that he could hardly stand it when we decided to start putting up decorations. We did the tree the week before Tate's birthday and so when Tate woke up from his nap, Teagan said, "Tatey, we have a very good surprise for you... SURPRISE! We made you a Christmas Birthday Tree!"