Christmasing

This Christmas season, we enjoyed plenty of festive things around the community, but we also made sure to have plenty of time to enjoy Christmas things at home. We made a special effort to set the stress of the holiday season aside and really enjoy ourselves as a family, and I think we were pretty successful.

Sarah has played non-stop with her Little People nativity set since Thanksgiving.

 Giving baby Jesus kisses.

 Making gingerbread cookies

Sarah loves playing with play doh. Cookie dough was even more fun.

Adding frosting and M&M's. Sarah was happy to taste samples.

 Sarah & I had a mommy-daughter date to the Smithfield Christmas parade. It was a fun parade, but Sarah got bored toward the end, so we snuck out ahead of the traffic.

 We stopped for donuts at O'Doodle Doo's on the way home, and Sarah was delighted to meet a giant rooster.

 Kelson carved a beautiful set of chopsticks for his parents for Christmas, and I made them a shiny case.

We took Sarah to Bass Pro Shop to meet Santa Claus. Mostly she wanted to watch the fish in the giant fish tank.

Santa was pretty much terrifying. Sitting on his knee was definitely not happening.

 A couple days before Christmas, we went to Colonial Williamsburg to see their Christmas decorations. We didn't really take any pictures that day, but it was very festive. It had been pouring down rain all morning, so the place was deserted. The rain had pretty much stopped by the time we got there, and we had the park practically to ourselves. This was Sarah enjoying the coloring room in the art museum.

 Sometimes, getting out a real ladder is just too much work. That is when you have to use your head to solve the problem.

 Sarah was amazingly excited to wake up from her nap one day and discover that we had a Christmas tree in our living room. She helped me hang up the ornaments, and then she really didn't bother them for the rest of the season. She would walk all around the tree pointing at each ornament and naming it, but never trying to take them down.

 She did add things occasionally. Notice that her glasses found her way on to the tree. I also found some interesting items from her play kitchen, such as a bagel and some lettuce, tucked in the tree.

All ready for the ward Christmas party. This is the face you get when you tell Sarah to smile. Sarah had a great time at the ward party. She kept slipping away from us to get up in front and dance during the musical program.

One of Sarah's favorite things was opening the boxes on our advent calendar each day. It was always one of my favorite parts of Christmas as a child too, and it was fun to watch Sarah get excited about it.

 Ready for church on the Sunday before Christmas.

Sarah LOVES Christmas lights. I don't even know how many light viewing walks and drives we have gone on. Each night, around the time it gets dark, Sarah wraps herself in a blanket and announces "Go lights!". She is going to be very sad when discovers that people take down their lights after Christmas.

We have been having so much Christmas fun!