Around here Christmas "season" starts in November. I am one of those people who gets really excited about listening to Christmas music starting before Thanksgiving, and I don't mind if stores or other places start decorating early. It's one of my favorite times of the year, so why not celebrate for as long as possible.
The first weekend of December really put us in the Christmas spirit with a Breakfast with Santa. This year has been so much fun with Avery. She was aware of what was going on last year, but it was still tough having a newborn around. This year she was legitimately excited for Christmas and happy to tell Santa what she wanted. This is actually the first year that Avery sat on Santa's lap. I never wanted to force her to meet Santa if she didn't want to in previous years, so, four Christmases later, we finally have our photo of Avery and Santa.
We enjoyed a nice breakfast and Avery did some crafts, and asked Santa for a bean bag chair. (After Kendall received a bean bag chair for her birthday, Avery decided that she wanted one too, and that's basically all she asked for.) Later that day we also got our Christmas tree and put it up over the next few days. We always get a real Christmas tree and it's great having our home decorated for Christmas.
The following weekend was our "party" weekend. I took Avery and Kendall to my sister's home to a cookie decorating party, which was really a lot of fun! It was mostly kids aged 4 and under, and Avery felt so comfortable playing with the kids and I almost didn't see her for about 3 hours, except to eat a quick piece of pizza, and decorate (and eat) two cookies. We spent the night there and came back in the morning to get ready for a local friend's Christmas party. That party was "Kid-free" and it was very enjoyable to have a night out to actually socialize with other adults haha. Then on Sunday we drove about 90 minutes away for another Christmas party - this one for the whole family, with some friends from college, and all of their kids. We definitely got our Christmas party fill.
The following week, Avery had her preschool Christmas party, and I was able to attend along with three of the other kids' parents. I threw together a delicious Chex mix, and we had games and a craft. It went very smoothly and it was interesting watching the kids interact with each other and the teachers. Avery seems to listen very well, and I expected a little clingyness, but was pleasantly surprised that she really wasn't clingy at all, and really had a good time. Her classmates behaved really well the entire time we were there, and displayed more patience and manners than I've ever seen of three and four-year olds.
The weekend before Christmas we went to Travis's great-grandmother's home for another Christmas party for the family. Avery has a cousin just a few months older than her, and it was fun for her to spend some time with him. We don't exchange gifts, but we have a nice dinner, and this year we did an "auction" with some $1-3 items that several people brought along, We used fake money and everyone went home with a little prize. It was nice to see people in my husband's family that we don't see as much during the year.
Throughout the whole month we did our Christmas shopping, and we finished up our shopping on the Sunday before Christmas with a trip to Grove City, PA. We didn't have the kids with us and it was fun to just spend time shopping with Travis, and get the last few items we needed.
My parents came into town the Monday before Christmas, and stayed with us for a day before heading over to PA. We hadn't seen them for several months, so it was nice for them to spend some time with Avery and Kendall. We ordered pizza and they left the next morning. (We had plans to seen them the weekend after Christmas)
Travis finished up work for the year on December 22nd, and it has been great having him home for so many days in a row. The month of December has flown by, like it always does, but I am happy that we were able to celebrate all month long.
Next post (coming soon...) - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
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