Last weekend and most of this week has been quite productive and fun thanks to a crazy wet weather stretch here in Southern California. Yes, we’re weather wusses, but let me tell you when weather like this comes along, it’s days like these that we can get a LOT done. As in, Deck the Halls, RMT’ers!

And so much to do this holiday and Christmas season indeed. I mentioned that we took T to play in the snow and we went to see Santa last weekend, but we also brought down all the holiday decorations (thank you organized attic, nothing like last year’s craziness that’s for sure) AND bought and decorated our tree, too!

OOH… AHH! Getting out Christmas and other holiday decor at our house is almost as exciting to our five-year-old T as Christmas morning itself! Really!

Tinsel, tinsel, TINSEL! And ornaments, and stuffed animals, and… and… T is just SO excited for Christmas this season!

It’s the “snowman for the door”! This was one of the main decorations that T kept asking about in the days before we started decorating. Turns out that we forgot that there’s a Santa and a reindeer, too! Holiday bonus!

I have a similar photo of T from last year in front of his Advent calendar that looks just like this. The only difference being that he was a year younger. Aww.

T opening up the first door of his Advent calendar from Grandma Shirl.

T with his cute little duckie, the first token from Grandma Shirl’s Advent calendar.

T and I had a jolly good time opening up the bins and bringing out the holiday cheer in the form of door hangers, table-top tchotchkes, and Advent calendars. Yes, that’s two calendars, RMT’ers. Turns out that while Grandma Shirl couldn’t send T a card-a-day this month as she did last year (she’s overseas and postage and timing would have been unmanageable I can only imagine), she did leave behind a cute little Santa Advent calendar for T to enjoy daily until the Big Day arrives. Toys received so far include small rubber stamps, a dollar bill, and a rubber duckie. Cute, fun, and so very T.

So exciting! T finds the Star Wars Advent calendar I put away post-season last Christmas. Thanks LEGO Store for the fab sale price! I even think I used a coupon when I bought this, too, making it well under the already-under $20 price (originally $39.99 in-season).

Just looking, I promise, Mom! This was on November 30. I am just happy that we didn’t get this out any sooner than the day-before December 1!

While not a bauble from the LEGO Advent Calendar, T did build this Santa sled complete with reindeer from his many LEGO-Duplos. I love his creativity with all my heart!

I’d also put away an extremely supersonic Star Wars Advent calendar from  past-season last year. The LEGO Store had it for under $20, so I snatched that right up not even knowing for sure whether T would like Star Wars by this time in his life. Well, I don’t really know what I was so concerned about; given that T’s five, a boy, and totally into space and the good-guy versus bad-guy thing, it’s pretty much the perfect choice. In the end, I kind-of felt like one of those moms from the Famous Footwear TV commercials (victory!).

A shot of some of the house decorations. They’re not super-extensive, but they’re special to us, each last one of them.

Honestly, T loved everything that came out of those bins. It was like unwrapping a new present at every turn and meeting old friends again. He loved seeing his special books, movies, music, and pretty much anything and everything Christmas-related.

Our Christmas tree, 2012. Decorations on Monday, RMT’ers!

But wait, there’s more! The real fun (and some challenge) came when it was time to decorate the tree. Look for more on that come Monday.

Have you decorated for Christmas and/or your special holidays yet this season, RMT’ers?

Buddy’s back in town! Notice how our Elf on the Shelf actually is on a shelf?! We are very glad to have an Elf who keeps true to his name. Nothing fancy needed here to keep T entertained; he’s perfectly content simply looking for his new shelf spot each morning. I had posted a pretty funny musing about Elf on the Shelf on my Facebook page last weekend, which I link to again below.

For even more fun and festive photos, you can check out this album on my Facebook page. And for a great musing about Elf on the Shelf, you can read my shared link from the “People I Want to Punch in the Throat” blog here.