Catching Up and Keeping Caught Up

I had a clever title. But now I can't remember it. I have been playing catch up the last few days and I have a renewed desire to stay caught up. It does not take long to write a little diddy everyday. And when you take almost a picture a day and your daughter is growing every single minute, it is a necessity! With only one daughter this is more of a possibility. I am sure when more kids come it will be much more difficult to keep this going all the time. But for now, I will try.

I love to take snapshots throughout the day to remember the things Alyssa does. On these two days she was doing two of her favorite things:

1. Wearing her tutu and flipping through books
2. Lounging in the chair (which is now covered with her boogies from rubbing her nose on it as she climbs up) with her pretzels and drink (I'm pretty sure she has eaten half of her weight in pretzels.)

We have started Christmas celebrating. I have been struggling a bit with tradition making and finding my perfect Christmas. Thankfully I read last years Christmas Devotional talk by President Uchtdorf today and he reminded me that Christmas need not be perfect. It should be joyous, wonderful, and filled with love. So we are trying.

We went to a little Christmas Fest thing that was kind of a bust if I might be honest. It was in a small store, which I thought it would be outside, that was very crowded and noisy. So, we went over to our friend's yogurt shoppe instead where there was hot cocoa and kids crafts (a planned overflow from the Christmas Fest). Alyssa even wrote her first letter to Santa...that is what she is trying to open in the picture.

We also put up our Christmas tree and some lights. Alyssa loves the lights and wants them plugged in as soon as she wakes up or as soon as we get home and then as soon as I plug them in she says a variation of "oo la la"! It's quite funny and I am always so excited to plug them in for her.

*Note, the video is a little long, but it is part of my new attempt to also have our family videos be accessible. You are witnessing the Archibald Family Journal Project in action, Someday it will get better.*