Christmas: Part I (The Events)

We had so many fun things to do this year and I was so excited about doing them all! We kicked off the season with a visit to Bass Pro Shops to see their Winter Wonderland right after Thanksgiving. They had such a neat set-up with a free picture with Santa, all kinds of holiday decor and a free reindeer carousel. It was a fun time!


The next thing we did was story time with Mrs. Claus at the library. This story time was really busy and it was hard for Clay to focus since there was so much going on (Carolina had her own entertainment with Nana). After the story we got to have a picture with Mrs. Claus (no love from Carolina and no chance with Clay) and "Rosty".




We went to look at lights that night and everyone but Carolina had a blast. The next morning, Clay and I did our Santa breakfast and checked out our local downtown area's Christmas decorations.


Back in November, we had the kids' pictures made for our Christmas card but there was nothing good of them together (Bah humbug!). So...we loaded up our own camera and our Aunt Rebecca (who is the most patient photographer's helper ever) and tried for some pics of our own at a local hotel. They had so many beautiful decorations and we had fun looking at all of their Christmas trees and lights. What we came up with picture-wise wasn't perfect (we didn't get one of the kids together either) but I'm SO glad we did take the pics because I found some new favorites in the bunch. Here's a sample:



We did some "fall" clothes and "Christmas" clothes to try to get some variety.



A couple of weekends later we went for our final Santa visit at the Arboretum. The Arboretum has some really festive stuff at this time of year and we loved getting to see a "real" gingerbread house, getting faces painted for the first time, seeing a live reindeer and playing in the big pirate ship (not so festive). (Patient) Aunt Rebecca came with us again and was a huge help with kid wrangling while I tried to get some cute pictures. I especially love the one of her and Carolina.





We loved the Pumpkin Patch so much that we were excited to go back after they turned it into a Christmas Tree Farm. We were the only people in the whole place so we were able to walk around and look at all of the fun Christmas cutouts and play on the bounce houses without any interruptions. So fun!

One of my favorite parts of the tree farm was the way that Clay started posing and saying "cheese" the second we walked outside. He was an eager picture taker that day (so rare!).

Another highlight was Carolina climbing the slide. The thing was HUGE and she was determined that because Clay had done it, she could too. There were ten rungs and she made it up six before Mike had to crawl up and help her. We definitely saw some of her determined side that day!



One of the last Christmas things we did before we left to visit family was making gingerbread houses. Clay and I were trying out a new playgroup (while Carolina napped at home with Daddy) and this was their activity for the week. We had such a great time making new friends and making a fun project.

I guess I didn't realize until now exactly how much fun we did have this season (and how long of a post this would be!). We were really blessed to get to do some neat things and to be able to do them together. I was so excited about getting to share this season with my little ones (and Mike, too). We started what I hope will be many fun traditions. I loved every little thing we did and I know two little people who had a pretty good time, too!