Santa Visit, Cookie Making, Final Days before Christmas Break

We finally made it down to 8th street for dinner and to visit Santa at Home & Company in mid-December. The Santa there is so friendly, and spends a nice bit of time talking to the girls.

The next day was baking day! We finally got to making our yearly butter Christmas cookies.

I also made 3 batches of granola to start prepping for gifts for teachers and friends. Love this stuff!

Busy Christmas prepping during the day equals more low-key cozy nights. LOVE sitting on the couch by the Christmas tree!

We continued our "Truth in the Tinsel" book each evening - some crafts turned out better than others. We read about the shepherds one night, and the craft was to make a little sheep ornament. They turned out a little sad looking. ;-)

A lot of our Truth in the Tinsel crafts actually just stayed on the counter, instead of getting hung on our tree, so we had some cute little biblical scenes going on amongst all our Christmas cards. Usually I am a little Type A about things looking tidy, but our counter during December makes me smile. :)

Speaking of getting ready for Christmas - both Taylor and Camryn were more helpful with wrapping this year. Camryn wanted to help me fill out some of the gift tags. Loved it!

Thursday - the last school day before break, I had a half day of school, and Taylor still had a full day to go. Her class was having a pajama day, and a cozy "read-in" day. Camryn and I went in to surprise Taylor and visit her class, and read a story. It was really fun. :)

Love all the fun December moments!

Getting December started!

December 1st started with a nightly routine of going through a book called "The Truth in the Tinsel". It is an advent series for kids that helps them have an understanding of the true Christmas story. Each night, we read a few selected verses from the Bible, create a craft related to the reading, and then talk about how it all fits in to the Christmas story. The girls have really liked it so far!

We finally had our first snow! Just a little - but enough for the girls to want to go out and play!

Colder days means a snuggly Cam! While I was getting ready for work one morning, Cam was waiting for me, all wrapped up in blankets on the bed. Made me want to crawl in with her and not head outside where it was cold!

One Friday evening, Cam took a random hour and a half nap. She woke up asking for toast.

And then in the middle of a bite, she said how happy she was that we didn't have to go anywhere because it was a Saturday. Poor kiddo thought that she had slept all night and was eating breakfast. :)

We made Gingerbread houses last Saturday - Troll style!

And took advantage of a holiday coupon to eat out at Salt and Pepper.

Taylor and I had our first snow day on Monday! After doing some work and chores around the house, we headed out to run some errands and go to Anna's House together.
Cam fell asleep on the drive. :)

Anna's House with the girlies and they even gave me a big Christmas cup!

We have had a lot more snow, which means fun with sledding! This was last night, there was a full moon, and it was really cold (a 5 degree windchill), but that didn't stop us from being outside for almost an hour!

Love this time of year!! 

Christmas Tree 2016

Our Christmas tree experience was, sadly, quite different than our other years. Our favorite Christmas tree place closed down, and we were stuck having to try to find someplace new.

We ended up going to a place that was close to our house, just to try it out for a year. The girls were excited on the drive over.

Cam ended up falling asleep on the 10 minute drive (after all the Thanksgiving holiday busyness)

We didn't get any pictures from the "tree getting" - the place only had pre-cut for the kind of tree we like, so we were there for about 15 minutes, and then on our way home.

Getting the tree set up!

The girls were expert decorators at this point!

Some of my favorite ornaments on the tree :-)

All lit up! I love the season of having a Christmas tree in the house! :)