Today is December 1, 2013.

Today is Emmett's 1st Birthday Party.

I am incredibly overcome with so many emotions.  I can't believe this amazing little boy is (almost) one!  We are having a Winter Onederland themed party this afternoon. 

I will obviously provide a full recap in the next few days complete with lots of photos!

Today is also the first day Emmett's Elf on the Shelf will appear!! 

Since he isn't old enough to understand the concept yet and he also isn't old enough for an Advent Calendar full of chocolate we are using Elf to bring Emmett a new Christmas book or movie every night until Christmas Eve! 

Christmas Eve he will bring Emmett's traditional Christmas Eve Box! Jammies, movie and snacks!

We scored with the $5 movie bins at Walmart and an awesome discount toy store that had Christmas board books for under $3 each, making this idea affordable! 

Can't wait to start wrapping them!

 

Birthday Shopping, Christmas Shopping - DONE!!

I strive to be finished shopping for Christmas LONG before the holiday chaos starts at the mall.  This year I found myself considerably further behind than usual.  I think I did an excellent job this year at putting a lot of thought into the gifts we purchased!  I wish I could share some of the unique items we got for certain folk but since they read they blog I can't really share ;).

In addition to adding Emmett into the Christmas Shopping chore, fun.  We also had a first birthday to shop for! 

Having a munchkin born so close to Christmas has so far proven to be:
A) Fun - because you can just shop and shop and decide what to give for which holiday later

and

B) Disastrous - because you shop and shop and shop some more and forget how much you actually bought!....I might speak from experience because I might have found a stash of gifts in the garage on the trailer that I hid for safe keeping's....whoops.

We definitely did not plan to go overboard but we did.  Since it's his first Birthday AND he will actually be awake and not brand spankin' new this Christmas we decided that it's okay.

Some of our top gifts this year are:

1) Mega Bloks: First Builders : Emmett LOVES the starter set of Mega Bloks that he has and loves them.  He recently started putting the pieces together himself!  I think there will be a few of these sets this year I know how happy he will be!

Photo Credit: Mega Bloks Website

2) Puzzles: Emmett is starting to understand the function of a puzzle.  He is into puzzles, stacking cups, stacking toys and anything that he has to figure out how to get a shape into an opening.


Photo Credit: Melissa & Doug

3) Rody Horse

When I first heard of this "hot" toy I had no idea what it was!  After some Google searching I realized Emmett had loved this toy at the pumpkin farm!  We finally found a Canadian retailer that sold it - Applause Toy Store - Bracebridge and scooped it up! 

4) Little Tykes DiscoverSounds Activity Garden




 I'm pretty excited for this!  It looks like it should keep him entertained for hours!


 He also got a few smaller toys, a couple electronic toys (okay a lot...like 6...okay 8), books, some clothes and of course he wouldn't be his Daddy's son if he didn't get a few jerseys!

I am very excited to see his reactions to each new items and glad that he won't remember how spoiled he was his first birthday and second Christmas!

DIY Felt Christmas Tree

Christmas Decorating Day in the Columbus household generally occurs the same weekend as the Toronto Santa Claus Parade.  We consider it the unofficial start to the holiday season!

In past years we have had a real tree which means we have to wait a few extra weeks to get our tree, although we do decorate the rest of the house the weekend of the parade.

Last year we didn't have to worry about the tree because Emmett being a whopping 3 weeks old at Christmas didn't have much interest!  We ended up putting up the artificial tree because there was NO way I was lugging my huge pregnant butt out to the tree farm in the snow and cold! 

We reluctantly decided to go artificial again this year.  Mainly for Emmett's safety (a small part of me wanted artificial so we could get it up earlier).  As we expected Emmett LOVES the tree!  Mostly, he is very good about leaving it alone.  However, he is still a very curious little man...who loves to defy Mommy & Daddy particularly when he is tired and grumpy.  This is usually when the tree gets "undressed".

Enter the Felt Christmas Tree!

I have seen a few pinterest links on the DIY Felt Christmas Tree.  I decided to tackle it.  I didn't read directions for any particular site as it seemed easy enough to do on my own.

Felt Christmas Tree

Materials Needed for 3.5 foot tree

1 metre of green felt
5-6 sheets of coloured felt
Scissors
Glue gun or white glue (optional)
Strong tape or adhesive of choice to tape to wall/window

Instructions

 

1) Fold green felt in half lengthwise
2) Draw half a tree - I used chalk to do this and just free handed my tree

3) Cut out tree leaving fold in tact
4) Use coloured felts to cut out ornaments.  I just used basic circles and ovals.  Some tutorials I saw got super creative and used cookie cutters or stencils to make fancy ornaments!  I made a few presents for the bottom but that was as creative as I got.

Lots of pretty colours!

 

Emmett was immediately interested and enjoyed decorating and undecorating for about 10 minutes.  Which is 10 minutes I didn't have to spend removing him from the real tree :).

The end result!

 

 

Think he likes it?

 

 

Here's to the first of what will hopefully be many DIY Christmas projects!!

 

 

How do you keep curious toddlers away from the Christmas tree?

 

When do you decorate for Christmas in your house?