Pre-Christmas Fun

We've been having a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas. Holly got into the holiday spirit while we were shopping at Walmart and picked out some cute reindeer antlers. Here she is sporting her new look.

She got to make sugar cookies for the very first time at daycare. She didn't actually help make the dough, but she spread the frosting (with help) and decorated (no help needed) them. Apparently, she had a great time dipping her fingers into frosting, then the sprinkles, and then licking her fingers. They tasted delicious, although Van thought they were too sweet, so that meant I got two instead of one (minus one bite)!
We came up to my parents' house on Friday afternoon. I had begged them to wait to cut the Christmas tree until we got there. Since Van has never celebrated Christmas, this is part of the tradition and fun of the holiday and I wanted her to experience it. What I didn't know is that it was going to snow 3 feet before we got there! Van kept saying that she wasn't going to go out in it because she would die. I assured her that just BEING in the snow wasn't going to kill her. Here she is standing in the snow when we first went out to find a tree.

Holly was much more agreeable to being out in the snow. As a matter of fact, Nana tried to take her inside after Holly's cheeks got too cold and she kept taking her gloves off. Holly cried and screamed louder and louder the further away from us she got. Finally, Nana brought her back, tears streaming down her face, and Holly was perfectly happy to have Mama carry her back to the warm house while Pop Pop had to drag the Christmas tree all by himself.

My nephew's birthday is the 21st and we decided this year to go on a family sleigh ride to celebrate. We had so much fun that we have dubbed this a new family tradition! We went up to the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch for our sleigh ride. I grew up in this area and had never been up there. Its absolutely beautiful and was loads of fun! They have a lodge where we went in to warm up and have some hot cocoa before the horses were ready to take us for a ride. Here are Van & Holly in an old sleigh they have in the lodge that would have been pulled by one horse.
Holly and Van played the piano for quite a while. Van plays much better than Holly, but they both had a great time and it kept Holly entertained for a long time.

Finally, we were ready to go! We piled into the sleigh, covered ourselves with blankets, and had two thermoses full of hot cocoa. Holly got a sippy cup with hot apple cider, which she loved, since I don't really give her juice that often.

The sleigh ride was a little under an hour and was just gorgeous. It was snowing the entire time, much to Van's dismay. Every once in a while, we would have to duck under branches hanging in the trail so that snow wouldn't dump down the back of our coats. Let me tell you, there's nothing better than a sleigh ride at Christmas time!

After we were done, Holly wanted to pet the horses. The ones that pulled us weren't super excited about that, but we found others who were friendlier and let us pet them. We did eventually get the Christmas tree up and decorated, all our shopping done, and the presents wrapped. I even got most of my Christmas cards sent out finally! We will go to Christmas eve church service tonight and then out to dinner. Afterward, Holly will get to wear her Christmas pajamas to bed, and hopefully Santa will arrive sometime tonight! Its a good thing he lands on the roof, because its supposed to snow even more tonight and his sleigh would probably get bogged down in it all. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and enjoys whatever traditions your family has for the holidays!