In Search of a Manger...

At a recent ornament exchange with the women from church, my friend Mary shared that her kids' favorite Christmas tradition is driving around looking at Christmas lights because every time they see a nativity, they yell out "Manger!" and they get to eat one M&M.

M&Ms are one of Amity's love languages so I knew she would totally go for this. Along with GG & KK's help, we dressed the girls in their Christmas pajamas and loaded up in the minivan to head out to Highland Park in search of some mangers.

Vivien did not know what to think about having Mommy and KK in the very back seat.

But, pretty soon, she was enthralled with the lights as well.

I think Amity ate a total of 5 or 6 M&Ms during the 1.5-2 hour drive. Very surprising! It was not for lack of looking though. She even "saw" Baby Jesus where the rest of us couldn't. Not sure if she was really getting the true meaning of Christmas or just hungry for more M&Ms!

Santa!!!

Last year, Amity was NOT excited about sitting on Santa's lap. This year, she woke up from her afternoon nap saying, "Now is it time to go see Santa?" While we aren't anti-Santa here, we haven't really talked him up too much either. When asked what she was going to tell Santa she wanted for Christmas, her reply has been "a cookie". Easy enough! We think Santa will be able to come through for her this year!

When it was their turn to see Santa, he told me that he needed two hands to hold Vivien. Maybe he really does see us when we are sleeping and know when we are awake because it is always a good idea to hold that one with two hands. I was a little confused about the process and Dennis thinks I confused Amity too. He thinks that her face in the picture is due to wondering why she didn't get to sit on Santa's lap too. I just didn't think to plop her up there next to Vivi.

Right after the picture, we went up to pick them up and Amity turned around and gave Santa the BIGGEST Amity-hug and just looked at him adoringly. I think he was even taken aback! Of course, no one got that on camera or video! Santa gave her a candy cane and she is still talking about it two days later.

You might be a redneck if...

you get your pictures with Santa taken at Bass Pro rather than North Park!  We don't care!  The Bass Pro Santa does not make you wait and the pictures are free!  Besides getting to see Santa, we enjoyed seeing all the decorations and animals as well as dinner at the restaurant with the Lintons and their boys.

 

We discovered Vivien's first fear (other than being left in a room for a few seconds alone)...BEARS!  She DID NOT like this bear and would just cling to us if we tried to hold her up to him. 

We also turned around to discover this little girl wearing a Bass Pro hat "just like Daddy".



Christmas Trains

We visited the Trains at North Park exhibit for the first time with some MOPS friends.

Amity was most fascinated with the tunnels and loved watching the trains dissappear and reappear.

For the record, Vivien was there too! She was just chilling in the sling or the stroller the whole time. After we ate lunch with our friends in the Food Court, we watched some "big kids" perform downstairs. Amity would have stood there a lot longer just staring at those "big kids".

Amity's First Self-Portrait

You can see the resemblance, right?

Our Little Eskimo

You would never know this little one was just at the doctor's office the day before with her first ear infection...

unless you wondered why she was wearing an eskimo hat in Dallas when it was 60 degrees outside!

We just didn't want to take any chances while we watched Daddy put up the Christmas lights!

Our very own episode of Charlie Brown!

When I was in college, I regularly babysat for a family with four children. This family had many sweet traditions that I still remember. One of them was placing garland abovoe each child's headboard for him/her to decorate independenty with lights and ornaments. When I saw these little Christmas trees for sale at Hobby Lobby for $3.50, I thought a certain little person might enjoy some "all-by-myself" decorating too.

And she did! We didn't even have to show her what to do. She hung everyone all by herself and the only input we gave was "You might want to put some on the other side of the tree!" I love this pose she did for me when I asked her to stand for a picture beside her tree!