It's Christmas time... in the country

Christmas had officially arrived at the Rasmussen household. I have this funny rule that I don't put our Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving. I feel that Thanksgiving is a very special day that should not be overlooked because Christmas is so close. When we were younger, we used to make my mom wait till after our birthday (Dec 7), because our birthday WAS NOT Christmas. (And we did not appreciate people giving birthday/Christmas presents! I mean what kid wants one present instead of two?) Ha! So, as the years went by and birthdays were no longer something to look forward to, the tree has been moved up to the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
If you have been following along, you know that I am a recent addict to Pinterest. It has really gotten my creative juices flowing, especially for the holiday season. Paul is one of those men that does not appreciate a lot of clutter around the house. He doesn't mind decorations, but every single wall/corner/table does not need something on/in it. But when Christmas comes, the more the merrier. He LOVES Christmas, so I like to take advantage. And with all my new found ideas, via Pinterest, I have added a few more decorations to the house. Take a look...

The centerpiece for our kitchen island

Our Tree

My DIY wreath! Inspiration was a $125 wreath from Etsy that I saw on Pinterest. (Only $30 in material and some concentration)

Kaleb still doesn't really get the whole Santa thing yet, and I'm pretty sure it's because I haven't taken the time to really explain it. I am going to get a book from the library this week to try and  help him really grasp that some man in a red suit is going to come to our house with reindeer and presents on Christmas Eve. Hopefully he will be excited, not freaked out. =) I am also going to work on him with the Baby Jesus story this year. We will see how it all goes! We went to Brooks' birthday party (our neighbor's kid and also Kaleb's classmate in daycare) yesterday at a local gameroom type place called Gattitown. It was lots of fun, but we had to work real hard to keep Kaleb out of the cake before they cut it. It was a monster truck cake and he REALLY wanted the trucks and icing! =) But when Brooks was opening his presents, Kaleb sat next to him and attempted to help. He was really excited to open them but was really disappointed when I kept reminding him that they weren't his! Brooks is into big trucks and tractors also, so that's pretty much all he got. And Kaleb REALLY wanted to take them out of the packages and open them! (which we ended up doing later that night at their house! Thanks Karen and Greg for having us over! He LOVED it!) It makes me really excited to see him at Christmas opening his presents. He has never really been that interested in unwrapping things. Even at his second birthday party, it was Paul and I that had to do all the unwrapping. So to see his face when he realizes all these presents are for him is going to be so great!

Here are some pics from the party on Saturday!

Of course he had to ride the 'Tractor'. 

Being silly on the Johnny Rocket game!

He really loves the Whack-a-Mole games! This one was half broken but he still liked it.

Riding Nemo. I bet he rode this thing 10 times! By then end, I was saying 'Cheese' and he was saying 'No Cheese'!