Santa??? Yes? No?

So many people in my area, okay just about everyone, does Santa every year.

I didn't do a Santa with my teenager. But some people, including my teenager, think I should do Santa for the baby.

I guess I'm just not sure. I'm torn apart over this issue. Okay, not really, but I'm just not for it.
I didn't do Santa with my oldest, or the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. If I do Santa with baby, does that mean I'm stuck with all that too? I wouldn't say it's "lying" to do these things, but at the same time I think it's not honest. So there is my issue.

If I turn a blind eye and allow those around me to be "Santa" and all the others to my child, will they expect me to not tell lil man when he asks as he gets older that it's not real? Because if he asks me directly, how am I supposed to say it's real?

And even though I always was honest with my teenager, when she was young she believed in Santa anyway. She was determined he was real. Nothing I was going to say or do would make any difference. There was a Santa and that was that.

I grew up with Santa. I don't remember when I realized he wasn't real. Maybe I always suspected. Would I have been dissapointed with a lack of Santa? I think I would have been fine with that. It's not like my parents bought "more". They bought what they were going to and that was it. Then they marked some from them and some from Santa.

However I was an odd child and presents, particularly opening them in front of someone, made me VERY uncomfortable. I hated it. Still do. So maybe that's why I think I wouldn't have minded a no Santa Christmas.

Anyone grow up without Santa willing to comment on your experience? We are a mixed Christian/non-Christian household.

Oh Christmas Tree and Extra Christmas Tree

This is the tree in our family room.!!!

It already has Lil Guy's present from grandma by it. He got a bouncer from grandma and after his initial, "what the heck is this" he then understood he was supposed to play with it :).!!!

This tree is where I put stuff for just "our family". I mean by that, the family that lives in our house. I don't really do presents but I might have a surprise for a boyfriend of mine this year... Maybe ;).!!!

I'm not sure what I'll do for my daughter yet. I usually write something on a notecard, put the notecard in a pretty container and wrap it and put it under the tree. I'm not sure what she would like to "do" with me. I've taken her mostly to museums or waterparks for her birthday and Christmas "presents". But I'm not sure at 15 that she would still like that. And I'm running out of time!!!

Two trees :). Yes, two!!!

This is our second tree. It has almost the same decorations as the other tree. The balls are on this one and the stars are on the other. Either way, I think both trees are awesomely amazing!!!

This is the tree that when family comes over they'll put whatever it is they have for others under the tree. We don't do adult gifts, so pretty much just the kids. Which is fine with me. It's so much easier to not have to shop for every adult and them not for me. Then we can just buy for ourselves what we need. But kids love presents, except me. I hated presents. I always felt guilty for getting presents as a kid. But now, I don't mind. Buy me all the presents you want :).

I have new poster board for our snowman. I'll be drawing him soon. It'll be a real work of art... haha. Yeah. Art... Ok, you'll be able to recognize that it is a snowman. Beyond that, I make no promises.

And now, for the update. I did the pullups this morning focusing on the down, going as slow as I could. I had to jump up for most of them anyway. And the soda/water deal? So far 3 for 3 and hating every minute of water drinking.

Christmas is Coming

The countdown to the end of the year is getting so close and I haven't yet even put up either of my Christmas trees!

I was going to do it the weekend after Thanksgiving. Then we had stuff going on. Then I worked some extra hours during this week so I have still yet to put them up.

In good news, I did bring the cushions for the outdoor furniture in the other day. They did get a little snowed on but I figured I couldn't wait till they were actually covered in feet of snow. Or maybe I could have, then I could be like, "Outdoor furniture? What outdoor furniture?". But I know you're not supposed to leave that stuff out all winter.

I love putting up my Christmas trees. I love it so much, I have two of them :). I don't remember which decorations I used last year. I'll have to stalk my own facebook page of last years Christmas party so I can figure it out and not use the same this year.

I also have stockings to do and games to plan. We play really fun games for Christmas.

My favorite is pin the nose on the snowman. Our snowman is SOOOO marked up from prior years that I need to make a new snowman. I can do that pretty quickly though.

Other games we play are things like "Snowball Carry" where you have two mixing bowls across the room from each other. One side is full of cotton balls, the other empty. Kids can use their hands to hold the spoon, but adults must not touch the spoon with their hands and carry the cotton balls across the room. Do NOT try this with raw eggs at Easter time, that would be messy.

Some years we do a snowball toss. It's kind of like a beanbag toss except we use those white foam balls from the craft section.

And we do holiday Bingo, Word Finding games, Trivia...

The things we do NOT do are things like Pictionary and Charades. If it's something a normal rational family would do, we probably don't do it :).

I get prizes for the games, too. I can't wait to set up this years games and search for new ideas! I love wrapping the prizes. Sometimes it's hard to find things that are appropriate for everyone though so prizes work sort of like White Elephant. You either pick a prize or steal. For the most part, doing it that way means everyone gets something more appropriate for them.

I'm also doing the dinner, but this mess is getting long enough. I'm trying something new this year rather than the typical roasts so I'm sure you'll all hear about that soon :).

Happy Thursday people :).