Matthews Family Christmas Kick-off!

Thanksgiving weekend was officially named The Matthews Family Christmas Kick-off this year! We all enjoyed a weekend full of Christmas shopping, cooking, and decorating! Vance is now 15 months old and wants to do everything Chad and I am doing. His little personality is so cute and we can tell he is always thinking. Vance truly loved setting up the house for Christmas. The non-stop Christmas music, Christmas movies, and decorating brought us many memories. Here are a few pictures of our Christmas Kick-off!

We got in the Christmas spirt with our Christmas jammies! I surprised the family for when Chad and Vance woke up Thanksgiving Day morning, they had Christmas jammies all layed out for them to wear through-out the weekend.

Here is Vance on Thanksgiving Day morning looking through the paper for sales on Black Friday. We taught Vance the word, "Doorbusters" and then made a list of all the places we wanted to shop the next day.

While Vance and I were making our Friday Shopping List, Daddy brought up all the Christmas stuff from the basement. Vance was so intrigued with all the bins full of shiney things! He just stared at these bins all day and pointed at all the things inside.

One thing I deeply miss is holding Vance while he sleeps. I always treasured those moments together when he was very young. Now, he is on the run most of the time. I was so happy to get a few quiet cuddle moments on Thanksgiving with Vance. It didn't last long, but I loved it more than anything.

Always time for tickle time.

Saturday was Christmas Tree Day! Before we all headed out into the cold, I wanted us all to enjoy a warm yummy breakfast. So, I got up very early on Saturday morning and made my famous Cinnamon rolls (yes, me in the kitchen!!). I only make these a few times a year for a few reasons. One is that they are very good but not good for you... I actually use real butter and real sugar! Another reason is that they take a long time to make. They are made from scratch, meaning I actually knead the dough and have to let things rise! After a few hours in the kitchen, they were done. Chad said they were my best batch yet!! (Thank you Mom Matthews for teaching me how to make these, I am keeping on the tradition!) We filled our bellies with goodness, brought some to Amanda, Bryan and Brady and then set off to find our Christmas tree.

We decided to get our Christmas Tree the 'old-fashioned way' this year and drove to a rural Christmas tree farm on Saturday morning. It was quite the experience! First, we got to see an example of all the trees they had at this farm. We decided to narrow our search down to the Blue Spruce or the Serbian Spruce. Then, we followed a map of the farm and went to the areas that grew those particular trees.

The farm gives you a sled to bring the tree back in but Vance thought it was for him instead!!

Here we are waving to Daddy in front of a Blue Spruce.

Here is Daddy and Vance walking up to our Christmas tree. We decided on a Serbian Spruce.

After about an hour of searching, we decided on this pretty one above. Vance just wanted to see everything! Here he is trying to see how Daddy was going to get the tree down.

Daddy and Vance with their masterpiece.

Here is the tree getting shaked!

...and now wrapped up tight!

We got home, got back into our Christmas jammies and decorated the tree. Chad did such a wonderful job of setting up and trimming the tree!

Vance was daddy's little helper.

Vance loved looking through all the Christmas bins and helping me set up the rest of our home.

The ornament bin was Vance's ultimate favorite. So many shiney things to see and touch!

Of course Vance loved the fake snow!

Vance carried around one of the wreaths for a while.

He wanted to do what ever Daddy was doing at all times! So cute!

Here is Vance helping me put ribbons on his very own tree.

"My own tree!"

Here is Vance's Advent Calendar from his "Uncle" Drew and "Aunt" Alison.

Daddy found a great place for our stockings this year!

Our tree.

Vance loved looking at each and every ornament. Many of our ornaments play music or light up, which Vance loves. We have taught Vance that the tree is for looking at, not playing with....so, now it is so cute to see Vance slowly creep up to the tree and just stare at it. At times, he does try to touch his favorite ornaments and always looks at us first before doing so...he is very sneaky! It is amazing watching his cognitive ability develop! He really thinks about things now and is starting to know what is right and wrong.