Christmas To-Do List
I had so many things on my Christmas to-do list this year (like, at least twenty).
Luckily, we were able to check most of them off this month!
One of these happened to be making a gingerbread house with Grace. She is old enough this year to participate in most of the Christmas traditions. I can't tell you how much fun this makes things for Isaac and me.
We bought a gingerbread house way back in November, and it's been sitting in our pantry waiting for Gracie to put it together. Finally, on Sunday morning, we got around to it.
She was really excited when I showed her what we were doing:
Little pumpkin even helped me hold the walls and roof together while the icing dried:
I told her she could sneak one piece of candy while we were waiting. From then on, every time she ate a piece, she'd say "Shhh! I'm just sneaking it.":
Once it was dry, I put icing on, showed her how it's done, and let her go to town. She had a blast decorating the house (while sneaking candies in between each piece she actually put on):
She decided Daddy needed to help and called him over. He helped her finish up:
(Candy thieves.)
She was so proud of the finished product:
I had so much fun watching her do something that I remember doing as a kid, plus we got to eat it afterwards, and it was delicious!
Another tradition that we try to do every year is pick a night to drive around and scope out Christmas lights. We always make a sweep through our neighborhood, because we have some awesome neighbors that go all out. We also try to hit up Quiver Point and Ethel M's. Usually, we do this with the Ditatas. This year, we kind of went around one night each week on our way home from somewhere.
We were able to meet up with them for hot chocolate, Ethel M's, and a quick drive through Quiver Point last week. As expected, the lights didn't disappoint.
Here are some of the awesome lights we saw at Quiver Point. Santa was even there hanging out one of the nights we came by:
Ethel M's was lit up beautifully as well:
I just love these huge bulbs...I'm on a quest to find them before next year's decorating extravaganza!
Even Charley was intrigued by all of the Christmas lights surrounding us as we walked through the cactus garden:
And finally, some other lights we came across as we drove throughout the nearby neighborhoods:
Grace was fascinated by them each time we drove by and always wanted her window rolled down no matter how cold it was. She even made us sing Christmas songs as we drove. If one of us wasn't singing, she'd be sure and point it out, "Daddyyyy...siiiinnngggg!"
She's in love with the Christmas season...can you blame her?
