Because this is the first Chanukah that Sam will remember (I think), I wanted to put more effort into decorating than I have the previous years. I made chains out of pretty blue and silver scrap paper. Foam snowflakes pulled from the bottom of the clearance bin at Michael’s were taped to the wall and I added “Happy Chanukah” bunting to a wreath that I made last year. It’s a simple branch wreath from Michael’s and I hot glued rosettes and flowers made from muslin and burlap. I inserted leftover pearl pins form my wedding bouquet into the rosettes for a little extra flair. The great thing about the wreath is that after Chanukah is over, I can remove the bunting and leave the wreath up all Winter/Spring if I want to. That’s my kind of decorating! Low maintenance at it’s finest. The table runner is new; we had a silver one but the dry cleaners ruined it. Gabe found this one on sale at Pottery Barn Kids and ordered it along with a leather chair, which was Sam’s big gift this year. I have decided to continue the tradition of gift giving that my parents started with us. The first night is the big gift, and the gifts become progressively smaller each night, with the smallest present opened on the last night.

Sam loves the chair. At first he seemed confused; his little two year old mind knew he was going to find a present in his room , but he was not expecting a chair. After he walked into his room and saw it, he said “Oh…chair. But where’s my present?” Gabe and I had to explain to him that the chair was indeed his present. I expected a fit, but he seemed more than fine with the explanation and proceeded to jump up and down in the chair and of course, made his Mama sit in it. It was fun watching him enjoy his first Big Boy piece of furniture