The last few months of the year were a blast for our little family of four. We went straight from apples and pumpkins and Halloween to Christmas in full force... decorating the tree, visiting Santa, gingerbread houses, preschool program, and lots of traveling. It was busy and action packed, but wonderful! The weekend after Thanksgiving we got the house decorated for Christmas. Erich carries all of the huge totes up from the basement, I decorate, and then he carries all the totes back down. It's definitely a joint effort! We tried to get that all done while the girls were napping and saved the best part, decorating the tree, for when they woke up. We played some classic Christmas tunes (Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole... my favorites!), got hot chocolate for everyone, and got to work.
I'm not sure why Norah is missing her shirt, but love this picture of her playing peek-a-boo from behind the tree
Mommy and Daddy hung the fragile ornaments on the top half of the tree and Avery had the special job of hanging all of the "Norah proof" ornaments on the bottom half. Norah is at the exact age that makes having a Christmas tree hard... she's just old enough to want to touch everything, but not old enough to really understand "no" and "gentle". All things considered, she did great with it. She only broke one ornament and it wasn't a sentimental or expensive one :)
Finishing touch! We always save the star on the top for last. This year Avery got to put the star on with a little help from daddy. You can't tell from the picture, but Avery is pretty high off the ground. We have an 8 ft tree. Erich had to stand on a step ladder to get her up there. She did great (and I'm always impressed by my man's muscle power. He makes it look so easy).
A week or two into the season we took a family trip to see Santa in his little red house at the outdoor shopping mall a couple miles down the street from our house. Avery and Norah wore their matching Christmas dresses and got all dolled up for the big man in red. I love this photo of our happy curly haired baby!
Pretty girl! Avery modeling her dress for the camera. She was very proud that she picked out the fabric. I loved that she was immediately drawn to the fabric that had baby Jesus and the rest of the nativity figures on it. What a fun reminder of the reason we celebrate! You'll be seeing these dresses in a lot of the Christmas photos. I had a great time making them for the girls (making matching clothes for Avery and Norah was my entire motivation to learn how to sew), but since I worked so hard on them we wanted to make sure we got the maximum use possible out of them, so they wore them every possible occassion!
If ever there were a "real" Santa Claus, this guy is it. We love him. Last year Avery was excited to see Santa and didn't cry, but was a little timid. This year she was shy for a brief minute then loosened up and was excited to sit on his lap and tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. Avery had no problem coming up with quite a list of toys she wanted for Christmas this year, but the big ticket item on her list was tickets to see Disney on Ice. From the first commercial she saw advertising it on tv months before she was enthralled and brought it up over and over again. We weren't sure exactly how it could work out since Disney on Ice was coming to Toledo December 19th but Santa doesn't come to our house until December 25th. Avery was sure Santa would pull through for her!
What do you know... when Avery said she wanted tickets to see the princesses ice skate, Santa pulled a pretty red envelope out his coat that had Avery's name on it. See... I told you he was the real deal!
Avery posing with Santa and her three front row tickets to see Disney on Ice the following week. (Norah stayed home with a sitter since the show started long after her bed time) I know that Christmas is not about Santa or presents or ice skating princesses. We don't want Avery to ever get the impression that anything trumps our love for Jesus as we celebrate His birth at Christmas time. However, I also don't think there's anything wrong with embracing the joy and magic of Christmas fun... like visits to Santa and fun surprised. I'll admit this brought tears overflowing for me. It was just SO neat.
Avery may have warmed up to Santa quickly but Norah was sure to keep her distance the whole time. She wanted nothing to do with Santa, just like she wants nothing to do with anyone she doesn't know. Norah is going through a huge separation anxiety stage so we had a feeling she wasn't going to love the Santa this year.
We were right.
Everyone needs a screaming baby on Santa's lap photo, right? Aside from Norah's meltdown it was a fun little visit to Santa's house and a great way to kick off the Christmas festivities!
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