Its been so much fun watching Arwen the past few days. Hard to believe she’ll be a year old on Thursday! Today she was playing with a scarf off of a stuffed snowman and we proceeded to watch her take it over to the Christmas tree and hang it on a limb. She took it right back off again, but I just thought that was really cute. Anya and her are really beginning to play a lot as well. Anya even requests to play with her when she wakes up in the morning and from her naps. Anya loves to play with Arwen, she gets frustrated at times when she doesn’t really want to share toys, but that’s just part of learning for both of them. I try not to be too hard on Anya as its not always fair to her either, but its easier to try and help Anya understand the concept of sharing at her age versus trying to explain it to Arwen.
I went Christmas shopping today and I am almost done. I had a budget for all my shopping this year and I’m happy to say that I’m staying under it so far. We really try to make sure we stick to our rule of 3 presents each for the girls and a few small things for their stockings. The 3 presents are in honor of the 3 gifts that the Wise men brought to Baby Jesus, and in keeping with the spirit of the season, we always relate the story to Anya (who understands it now) and it works really well we think. This way she doesn’t get an abundance of gifts and she knows we give her the 3 presents because we love her and because its one way we celebrate the birth of Jesus, even though its not her birthday.
We also attended Travis’ Company Christmas party last night and it was a lot of fun. Anya got to make Christmas ornaments with the other children there and I got to have adult conversation and we all enjoyed a wonderful meal.
Stay tuned for pics from Arwen’s first Birthday experiences later this week and an update on the condition of Travis’ ankle, knee, and hip.