Early December Christmas Activities

Charlie and I made a bunch of cookies last week. He enjoyed playing with the dough. 

Charlie and Cade at Baddorf December Birthday Extravaganza. 

On Sunday night Bryan and I hosted my family for a Christmas Vacation dinner. Festive holiday wear and costumes were strongly encouraged. 

Early this month at a church event. 

Charlie is obsessed with the Christmas Tree. 

It's hard to believe that Christmas is this week. THIS WEEK! Yikes. I hope that you have a very merry Christmas! 

Christmas Decoration 2016

For Christmas this year I got a new house to decorate! Haha. I remember so clearly when we bought our first house the week after Christmas I thought about decorating it all year for the next Christmas. I was not quite so eager this year. 

I think having to decorate the house for the rest of the year has me a a little burnt out this year for Christmas. So I kept it pretty minimal, but still cheery. Here's a look at what I did other than the tree. 

I put my Angels and Nutcrackers on the mantle. I have good intentions of putting tree clippings in the vase in place of the cotton, but it still hasn't happened after two weeks. Stockings are hung by the chimney with care. 

Creche about the tv, Santa hat on the tv. Keeping it classy. 

I was slightly excited about decorating the banister. I put a decorative garland I've had on it and added some battery powered twinkle lights. It's a fun little moment in the front of the house. 

Vintage ornaments hung from the chandalier. 

There are some smaller moments of holiday cheer scattered throughout the house, but it just didn't seem photo worthy. Next year I think I'll go a little bit more all out. Until then, we are enjoying the Christmas season in the new house. 

Charlie Meets Santa!

Charlie recently learned about Santa. Well, really he can just recognize him. He doesn't know about presents or being bad or good yet. I bought him a Night Before Christmas book and on the cover is Santa Clause. So I pointed to him and said Santa. He quickly learned the word. The other night we watched Elf and there too I pointed out Santa. He quickly pointed from his book to the tv and back again. 

This past Saturday our local nursery, Good Winds, offered a time to meet Santa (with hot chocolate and cookies too!) and we jumped at the chance. We really miss being able to walk more places. This is the one business we can walk to. 

I was not about to take Charlie to the mall to pay a bunch of money to see Santa anyways. This was perfect. It was intimate and close and the Santa was so sweet and patient with Charlie. 

Charlie recognized him right away as we waited our turn. He was willing to go up to him and shake his hand, but did not want to sit in his lap. So Bryan and I took turns holding him and taking pictures. Charlie really enjoyed the cookies, if you can't tell. 

We have another chance to meet Santa on Friday. I think its even the same one, so we will see how that goes. 

Charlie is really enjoying this season. He loves pointing out Christmas trees and Santas wherever we go. 

Our Christmas Tree 2016!

Presenting our 2016 Christmas tree!!! 

The last few years we've gotten our live tree from Midtown Nursery and we've loved it. Each has been so beautiful. But with the new house and the new neighborhood we were eager to support our neighbor's business, Good Winds. So the Saturday after Thanksgiving (they were closed Friday), the three of us walked over and chose our tree. 

Then we walked it home! Yay for new traditions!!! 

It was a little tall. Darn you, lower ceilings! 

It took us about two days to fully decorate and Charlie is totally mesmerized. We spent about a week saying "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" but he's finally gotten the hang of it. He has his favorite ornaments he enjoys pointing out and he LOVES turning the tree on and off. 

It looks a little crooked in the pictures, but its not so bad in real life. 

Charlie seems to be understanding more and more this year. He points out Christmas trees all over and says "pretty" when he sees lights. What a fun season this will be! 

Disney World Trip 2016

This past weekend I got to fly to Orlando to meet Bryan for an adults birthday weekend at Disney World! It was sort of a last minute (errr... planned in September) trip. Bryan worked at The Running Event in Orlando from Tuesday through Friday, so I left the kid with his grandparents and met him in Florida! Why not?

We spent Saturday at the Magic Kingdom and Sunday at Epcot. Then we flew home on Monday. A whirlwind trip that was sooooo needed. I forgot how much I needed some adult time with just my husband and best friend. 

Here's a few pictures and a quick re-cap of the trip. 

We Uber-ed everywhere. It was probably the same in the end as getting a rental  car, but being dropped off close to the parks was worth it to us. On Saturday morning we took the ferry across a lake to the entrance of Magic Kingdom. It was a nice touch and something I had never done before. 

We took more selfies in two days than we have ever in our whole lives. 

Screenshot from the Disney video they try to sell us. No thanks, Disney. 

Lines. 

Pretty much the closet we came to any of the characters. 

I had been thinking about that popsicle since we started thinking about this trip. Worth it. 

We really loved Epcot.  The food! The drinks! It was much more our speed. 

For the Christmas season they had speakers and entertainers at each country talking about their Christmas traditions. Above is Pere Noel from France, below Helga from Germany. 

Fun Fact: I'm hiding a giant pretzel behind Helga, and Bryan is holding a big beer behind me. 

The Norway talk was one of our favorites. 

Birthday dessert in France. 

Bryan and I had a great time and are thankful for the opportunity to get to go. See you in about 4-5 years, Disney.