What's Up Wednesday: It's Almost Christmas!

Christmas is almost here and today I'm linking up for What's Up Wednesday

What we're eating this week

Leftovers.  We hosted our Community Group Christmas party Sunday night and the leftover pizza from that dinner lasted us a few meals.  Monday I made Chicken Tortilla Soup in the crockpot, but David was gone Monday night and I was gone last night so it'll be dinner tonight too.  Which is my favorite kind of week--where I only cook a few times!  I also thawed some pork roast from our freezer so that'll help round out our week.

What I'm reminiscing about

Our trip to Boston last Fall.  I finally finished our photo book for last year right after Thanksgiving- in my defense our "year" runs anniversary to anniversary so "last year" just ended in July... and due to really poor customer service on the site I was using I had to completely recreate the book so I made it twice.  We decided to do a separate book for the trip so we could include lots of pictures and details, so I just finished that one up this week using Chatbooks (which I loved!).  It was fun looking back through all of the pictures and memories from that trip!  We didn't travel much this year, so it was nice to reminisce about that time away.  Also-- we did take this picture in front of the Co-op with Coop in mind even though we didn't yet know we were having a boy-- we knew that was most likely going to be our boys name so we couldn't pass up this photo op.

What I'm loving

As much as I was dreading our newly crawling Cooper and all the trouble he can get in to (and believe me--he gets into a lot of things!) I am loving that my crawling boy can come find me.  One of the things I'm loving right now is when I'm in the kitchen doing something and I hear little hands and knees coming for me and look down to little hands grabbing my leg and a little baby in footy pajamas coming to see his mama.  This boy is so much fun.

What we've been up to

Babyproofing--or the lack there of...In addition to all the Christmas fun we've been introducing Cooper to, he's also been finding his own fun around the house.  As long as he's safe I tend to just let him explore and here are a few things he's found.

Lily's water bowl is his #1 favorite.  He goes for this several times a day and we constantly tell him no and redirect him.  If I'm in the kitchen working on something I will usually just pick the bowl up off the floor because I know Cooper will be in there with me.  Here he is playing with her empty food bowl...

He found the extra toilet paper while I was getting ready one morning

 This snowman is just his size...

 And of course the Christmas tree provides endless entertainment

What I'm dreading

Nothing really.  If I still had Christmas shopping to do I would be dreading getting out in that--I went to the mall with my mom last Friday during the day to get a gift she needed and it was a madhouse.  Trying to park was crazy and people drive like crazy.  But luckily I did almost all of my shopping online and everything is wrapped and ready to go!

What I'm working on

All of my DIY projects that I posted the other day.  I also made another batch of baby food for the freezer earlier this month and I've been making egg muffins each week for Cooper and I to have for breakfast--this week our eggs have mushrooms, bell peppers, spinach and a little cheese!

What I'm excited about

Cooper's first Christmas!  We're looking forward to good time with family and lots of time with them.  And today Cooper and I are hanging out with his cousins--my mom is keeping my niece and nephew today and when she asked my nephew what he wanted to do he kept telling her the only thing he wanted to do was play with Baby Cooper--so we will be fulfilling that request.  Cooper's got a lot of family who loves him and we're looking forward to a lot of fun with them over the next week!

What I'm watching/reading

I just finished up the seasons of Holiday Baking Championship and Christmas Cookie Challenge on Monday--both were a lot of fun.  We actually have only watched one Christmas movie from our collection so far this year.  I love them, but by the time we get Cooper to bed and sit down to watch something I don't usually have it in me to watch a whole movie before I fall asleep {#pathetic}.  I have been watching some Hallmark Christmas movies throughout the day in the background, but haven't sat and watched much.  As far as books I'm reading a few Christmas novellas that I found on my library's digital checkout system.  And I just finished Wonder this morning and I really liked it.  

What I'm listening to

Lots of Christmas music!  I usually start our morning playtime by finding a version of our Advent song of the day on Amazon music.  We'll listen to a few versions of it and then I typically pick one of the artists I like and we listen to their Christmas album while we play and get breakfast ready.  I love having Amazon music and being able to access so much music for free!  One of the albums we really like on there is this one:


I had heard about Rain for Roots from a podcast that I follow and they have really fun Biblically based songs for kids.  We listened to one of their other albums this Fall, so when I saw they had this Christmas album we've had it going a lot this month!

What I'm wearing

Cozy clothes!  Lots of sweat pants and leggings with my Bearpaw boots.  I also have been enjoying my Christmas shirts from Milk and Honey Tees!

What I'm doing this weekend

Celebrating Christmas!  We don't have any plans Saturday, but it is David's first day of his "Christmas break" so we will probably enjoy some family time just the 3 of us.  On Sunday we will celebrate Christmas with my family--foods, gifts and Christmas Eve service

What I'm looking forward to next month

A New Year!  I am thankful that we have a chance to make things new every day, but there is something fun about a new year and all of the potential I feel in that.

What else is new
Not too much.

What's the best gift you've ever given to your guy

Honestly, David and I don't really exchange gifts that often.  For Christmas we sometimes do nothing and the other times only get stocking stuffers.  We don't usually get each other Valentine's or Anniversary gifts (although we will some years).  I feel like lots of things I buy him go unused.  Probably the most used gift I gave him was the year of sports dates that I gave him our first married Valentines Day.  He enjoys going and doing things together so this gave us a good way to have planned dates throughout the year.