I'm about to put way too many photographs in a single post (not to mention I'm blogging about last Christmas, when the kids have just started back to school), but I'm trying to share the last few set of photographs hiding on my hard-drive, before I return to in real time blogging. I didn't take nearly as many pictures of our Holiday decorations last year, but I do have some pretty sweet moments preserved. Like we've done for the last several years, we had both a real tree and an artificial one last year. Our go-to location for Christmas tree shopping is a local tent where they bring fir trees from the Carolinas to sell. We opted to get our tree a little later in the season last year -- hoping it would last a little longer -- and were super disappointed to see the tent was out of trees ...
Christmas
Santa on the Farm
I've had some amount of anxiety about how to start posting here again. Do I attempt an explanation about my absence -- ahem, global pandemic -- or do I just start posting like I've been doing it all along? It's 4:30 in the morning and I've been awake for hours, so I figured I might as well spend my time wisely. Because of COVID, our usual Santa spot was something else entirely. While I wasn't keen on having the kids sit on a stranger's lap, among throngs of other grubby kids, I also didn't want a plexiglass barrier or a weird replacement activity this year. At the very last minute, I decided to book a session with a local photographer (who also happens to be my cousin!) shooting at a nearby Christmas tree farm. It still wasn't the best idea, but it was outside, with limited guests, and ...
Christmas Things | 2019
I feel like the holidays were a blur, but in the best possible way. It was so much fun to see Polly experience so many things on her own this year and my big girls were just as excited to see her open gifts as they were to open their own. We stayed close to home and enjoyed having Josh home with us for a few days (he's always home, since he works there, but he rarely gets to take days off at the end of the year). We've celebrated Christmas here for the last three years, but this one felt the most like home. In an effort to use up all of my almost empty rolls of wrapping paper, we had quite the assortment this year. I loved seeing the packages all piled up in different patterns, but I'm glad to have eliminated so much of my stash! We decided this year to start a sister gift ...
Tree Tent Adventure
For pretty much our entire marriage, we've loaded up on the morning after Thanksgiving to pick out our Christmas tree. The girls look forward to this day for weeks and by Thursday afternoon, they couldn't stop talking about it. We alternate between a few of our favorite breakfast places, stuff ourselves full of pancakes, and then pick out the biggest tree we can fit inside our house. This was the year we discovered that Polly doesn't like pancakes, french toast OR waffles (unless slathered in nut butter), so I was patting myself on the back for feeding her something before we left. She did eat a scrambled egg, a few bites of bacon, and a green pea squeezie, but I'm hoping we can convince her that IHOP breakfasts are a rare delicacy. This was also the year of mostly blurry ...
Packing Up Christmas
This post contains affiliate links, meaning any purchases made using these links will earn Taz + Belly a small commission. You can read more about our affiliate relationships here. I know what you're thinking -- why are we talking about Christmas in February?! Generally speaking, I take the majority of our Christmas decor down the weekend of MLK Day. The girls like for me to leave them up as long as I can (Who am I kidding? I do, too!) and it's a long weekend after the holidays are over, when I can take the time to purge and organize. I'm also a bit of a procrastinator, so with Polly as an excuse to relax and snuggle, I've only just finished the packing process this week. It's not like our house was still decorated, I just hadn't fully organized or put things away in the attic. I ...
Christmas Things | Part Three
I'm finally wrapping up our holiday season with a few of my favorite days! You can check up on parts one and two of our Christmas Things, if you didn't get to read them earlier in the month. I’m on record with Christmas Eve bring my favorite day of the year. One of the things I miss most about our old house is being able to lay in bed, after Santa made his delivery, and see everything that he brought. I love the satisfaction of knowing you just granted all of their wishes in a matter of minutes. This year, I was afraid we’d have a few creepers, so I convinced Santa to make his delivery during Polly’s first nursing session of the morning. The big girls slept until almost seven, so it worked out perfectly. My mom mom bought this cute Santa mug and plate for part of Polly’s ...
Christmas Things | Part Two
How about we continue recapping Christmas in January? I've got a few more photo-filled posts, plus a look at how I organized and packed my Christmas decor this year. Maybe by February, I'll be thinking more about the new year! If you missed our first Christmas Things post, you can check it out here. I remember telling you (and Ella!), last year, that she wouldn't ever have to have her picture made with Santa Claus again. She was feeling a little silly in last year's picture, but my sister and I both really wanted her in the group photo for Vera's first Christmas. Never in a million years did I expect to have another baby, but it's clear that I spoke prematurely. We talked about it on and off all season and I was finally able to convince her to take a photo with her sisters. She skipped ...
Christmas Things | Part One
I haven't taken as many photographs this holiday season as I wish, but now that I'm done working for the year (that feels so good to say!), I'm planning to over-document the remainder of Polly's first Christmas! In an attempt to catch up and share some of my favorite moments of December, so far, here's a photo filled post for your enjoyment. If you've been reading for more than a few Christmases, then you know that we make an annual date around the acquisition of our Christmas Tree. I've probably said this every year, but we always joke about the cars coming from "the city" to our hometown to cut down their Christmas tree on a farm, while we drive into town and buy ours out of a parking lot! We tried tree-cutting one year and the girls hated it and our tree died two weeks before ...