Holiday Fun

We had such a fun Christmas season.  I actually like the weeks leading up to Christmas better than Christmas itself!  Well, once I have the shopping for those last, hard-to-buy-for people finished anyways!  The Christmas music and movies, lights and decorations, and fun traditions are the best part in my opinion.  Christmas Eve and Day are just so rushed and chaotic for our family, so I guess that is why I feel that way.  

It was Landry Kate's first Christmas, so I was sure to get her dressed up all cute in some red and green!  I probably went a little overboard on the little outfits she had...I mean there are only so many days in December to wear them...but seriously, they are just too adorable.  

And then these with the little tutu her Aunt Dana found on clearance last year just melt my heart.  If only I had taken them a few days before Christmas while there were still presents under the tree!  Oh well, I have a feeling this little tutu will reappear next year because it was plenty big. :)

Of course, it wasn't all tutus and cuteness...we had our fair share of trouble with the tree as well.  Carter did amazingly well this year, only wanting to touch an ornament here and there, and usually the tractors ones or dogs or something that just caught his eye.  He didn't even worry me about the presents.  But little miss Landry Kate couldn't stand not to be touching something constantly.  Even when we would smack her little hand and tell her no, she would immediately try again.  It was pretty exhausting, but somehow, no ornaments were broken and no presents had to be re-wrapped!  Little miss hated being told no...

We continued some fun traditions this year, too.  We went to the local light parade.  We got so lucky because the weather was so nice and warm!  Carter was really excited until we realized we had forgotten to pack him some ear plugs to help muffle the sound of the sirens of the police cars and fire trucks.  So he ended up watching with his hands over his ears...the entire time.  I couldn't seem to convince him that the loud part was over!  He wouldn't even take his hands down to get some candy!  

Even though the looks of it tell a different story, he swears he had a blast and couldn't stop talking about it for weeks.  And Landry Kate seemed to enjoy all of the excitement.  

We have also enjoyed Christmas lights.  Brent did an amazing job with the lights on our own house...

And while those were fun to look at, we took a trip with my youngest sister the week of Christmas to go to a park to see the Christmas lights display they had.  Carter had the time of his life!  He loved all of the lights, but he was so amazed by the section they had that looked like racing cars.  He saw them from a mile away and made me drive by that section no less than five times.  Landry really seemed to enjoy them too!  

And one of the traditions Carter has enjoyed the most has been watching Christmas movies.  We have watched Elf a few times and the Grinch about three million times.  It is definitely Carter's favorite.  He has also enjoyed pulling out all of his Christmas books to read and he adores singing and dancing to Christmas carols. 

Even though I love crafting, I didn't attempt any projects with the kids this year.  I would love to have some keepsakes with their handprints, but for whatever reason I didn't do any.  I guess crafting is my outlet and bringing the chaos of the kids in to that would take away the good feelings of it all for me?  I don't know, but I do know I need to get it together and do some of that kind of stuff before they go and grow up on me!

I did make a batch of Chex Mix just for us to have around the house and it has been very well-loved by all.  Then Carter and I put together a gingerbread house on Christmas Eve.  This was both of our first times to do a gingerbread house and I was surprised at how easy the actual construction of it went.  Carter did more eating of the candy and supervising than actually helping, but he seemed to really enjoy it and was very proud of it.  I think I could have spent days decorating the thing...the details take time!  In the end, it was pretty cute!

And last, the ever-important Santa visit.  Carter has been scared the past two years (with the only good picture of him in Santa's lap coming from when he was a couple of months old and didn't know any different!) but he promised me this year was going to be different.  He said he was going to sit in his lap and smile for a picture and tell Santa exactly what he wanted him to bring (trucks and tractors of course).  He was acting so, so brave until we pulled up in the parking lot to where Santa was and he said, "Mom, I feel scared."  Right then, I knew it wasn't going to happen!  So, little sister got some solo pictures with the man in red.

I was pretty surprised that she freaked out a bit at first.  She is usually pretty go-with-the-flow about new people, but I guess Santa was a bit too different for her.  She freaked for a few seconds before she noticed a little boy around maybe 2 toddling around the room and she focused in on him and mainly just wanted to get down and play with him.

Then, Santa was able to talk Carter into coming to see what he had in his "special bags".  Carter could remember from last year that there was some chocolate in there, so that got his attention pretty well.  

He was able to talk to Santa from afar about his candy bag and tell him what he hoped he would bring for Christmas and that was that.  

Next year, we will have to go to a fancy Santa where they have professional pictures and things set up because I think if Carter had to wait in line and watch Santa and the other kids, he would probably be okay with seeing him when it was his turn.  We will see!

I still have lots of blog catch-up to do.  I need to go back and post about Carter's third birthday party when I finally get pictures from it and then I will have Christmas, Landry's 12 month post and her birthday party post.  I will catch up one of these days! ;)