Christmas Eve.

 'Tis the season for making merry ~ 'tis our Christmas week!
And THESE have been a few of my favorite things:

 A little bit of the outdoors brought inside.
And an oh so very strong cup of brew ~ a Christmas blend at that!

And do you know what I REALLY love?
I love what the bag says.
This is the description of Starbucks Christmas blend:
"Spicy and sweet with hints of comfort and joy."
Why, thank you, dear Starbucks...I am INDEED filled with comfort and joy.
Large hints of it.

I also love mid-morning tea parties with my boys.

Made extra special by homemade cookies from Grammy...

...And little boys who just. can't. wait.

I love live Nativities put on by neighborhood kids.

And I find especially delightful and hilarious the fact that a kid is "the star."

Classic.

 I love little cake pop sheep made by an uber-creative friend...

And I love homemade caramels made by my cousin-brother.

I pretty much love food.

Joy to the world in all of it's glory.

Hallelujah and Amen.

 I love when Grammy comes for a few days and fills my Littles' love tanks right up to the brim.
And I love that I got to once again play the role of somebody's kid.
And when I'm pregnant...I play it pretty well.

 I love little boy decorations that literally are covering my home right now.
And I love that I'm loosening up my OCD control freak mode, and I'm just riding with the chaos.

I love celebrating birthdays of some of my favorite neighbors...and their new friends...

It's all about relationships, right?  It would mean nothing without loved ones.

*   *    *    *    *  

While we've added one more little to the mix on Thursdays that makes the days that much more full...

And while today has been a day of barely controlled chaos and one epic mess after another...

While it's been a day of making homemade bubbles, and inhaling homemade bubbles....

....and puking up homemade bubbles... (no joke)...

While it's been a day of continuous interruptions and a whole lot of crazy...

While it's been a day of a few things broken, and a few floors filthy...

Four kids crazy, and one Mama Nuts-o...

Our awesome homemade Advent Calendar of paper rings tells us that tonight is our own little family's very own Christmas Eve.  So, all of this crazy-ness, and letting loose, and making merry is merely three little boys in the very thick of childhood excitement and barely contained joy.

Tonight - for us, anyway - it begins!

There will be stories, and treats, a scavengar hunt, and a wee Christmas movie perhaps.

It is, indeed, "The joy of the small that makes life large." ~  Ann Voskamp

Have a very merry of your very own....