It was our annual pumpkin carving night. I wait as long as possible to carve them so our pumpkins don’t get sunken or mushy. It’s a pet peeve of mine. The Princess is frequently chagrined because I dump them into the trash the morning after Halloween. I hate driving past people’s homes the week or two after Halloween and seeing sad, nasty, rotten, deflated pumpkins lining their sidewalks.

Littlebit was overjoyed to dig our her pumpkin “guts” even after proclaiming “yuck!” a few times. She happily threw a few handfuls to the floor for the dog’s enjoyment–yes our dog (and least year our baby) eats raw pumpkin guts.

The Princess cleaned out her guts and designed her face and I threw in a little bit of creativity all my own.

Of course, we saved the seeds and they’re now roasting in the oven. I used this easy to follow recipe from all recipes, We have five more whole pumpkins outside and if I find time tomorrow, I might carve a few more for fun and to have seeds for sugar and spice roasted seeds. Of course, I’ll include some in the Princesses lunch tomorrow to build upon our Halloween theme.

This is my favorite time of year….

Not Halloween so much, but the fact that excitement of the holiday season is beginning. I am giddy thinking about the possibilities and the fun we can have. The cookies we have to bake and the decorating we get to do. I’m so excited about the crafts we’ll make and the places we’ll go. It’s literally enough to make me jump out of my chair RIGHT NOW in excitement and anticipation, but I can’t.

What I can do is spend some time focusing on what I’d like to do and narrowing down the list. I’ve learned from Christmases past that I just can’t do everything, so I need to decide what things are the most important and go from there.

So, what things are making my list this year?
Making this awesome non-traditional Advent Calendar. Naturally it started life as a Martha Stewart creation, but I like the idea of being able to tuck a little something inside and am thankful Ali shared the Christmas prompts she was using on her website.

Getting to the Brookfield Zoo’s Holiday Magic event. It’s been on my to-do list for years, but this time I actually wrote it in on the calendar so we make it a point to go.

Visiting Santa Claus at the tiny hut beside the train station near the town we live in. Santa sits in a posh, ornate red chair in front of a fire place. Last year we went the weekend before Christmas and there was no line. The trees outside were decorated so beautifully and it seemed just the sort of place you’d find Santa tucked into, reading before his Christmas Eve journey

The Princess insists on checking in with Norad’s Santa Tracker. It never fails to get an excited to kid to sleep on Christmas Eve as we point out when Santa is visiting the cities of relatives the next state over.

Making sure to watch The Family Man with Big Daddy. It’s a nicely done story set at Christmas time and full of reminders about what things we should find the most important. We don’t watch it with the kids, it’s a tradition we only share with each other. I think there is no greater thing than to actually be surrounded with the knowledge of how BLESSED your life is.

If there are things you love to do around the Holiday season, why not pencil them in and give them the same weight you give to trips to the dentist and school assignments.