How did they do it?!

So Joe and I tried to do some Christmas shopping for Sofia yesterday. FAIL! Yeah, that was definitely a bad idea. Last year she was still little so we were able to buy her stuff and by the time she saw it again for Xmas she was shocked and as excited as she was the first time she saw it at the store. LOL Not now... now it's "Is that for me, Momma!?" "Can I open it when we get home?" "I don't want that one!" even though we told her it wasn't for her. LOL!!! And now she remembers things from a long time ago. Her memory is that of a big girl now. Joe and I got a little frustrated at the store so we kind of gave up on shopping for her. When we got home he said "How did our parents do it!? How did they do it? I never saw my parents get my gifts... They were sneaky!" I said "Probably because they left you guys home..." hahaha! I know my parents did! It's hard for us because we don't have anybody to leave her with. If we weren't a military family and lived back home, we could leave her with grandma or auntie and go sneak off to do our shopping. And us, we like to do it together, ya know? *sigh* Oh well... it'll get easier, I'm sure.

Hey, so speaking of Christmas... there are some really cool and fun things I want to try with Sofia. Well as a family too. I got these ideas from Pinterest.

I've been wanting to do an Advent Calendar for a few years now. But since Sofia's so little still, I think this is something we can do! I went ahead and got a 8x10 print of this through Walgreens (cheap!) and am going to frame it and can't wait to do it with Sofia. She's going to love it. =)

Go HERE for details.

This is another print I wanted to order but I want it large and right now I don't feel like paying that much for a print like that. Oh well... maybe next year! I'll save the print though for next Christmas.
Click HERE for details.

What I do want to do for SURE are the following:

Since we have pancakes every Sunday (it's a tradition around here!) we are totally going to make these this month as it gets closer to Christmas time.
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These for our hot chocolate! mmmmMMMMM!!!!


And this Slow Cooker Cider recipe. Yummers!


And since Xmas is in the air already... and as if you haven't heard enough Xmas songs by now... here's another one for you! LOL One of my favorite versions of "The Little Drummer Boy" =)