Santa, Gingerbread Train, & The Grinch

Because we were all sick, we missed our ward party this year. This meant we missed seeing Santa there. Luckily, Santa came back to town and was at one of the stores downtown one Saturday. We took Claire down to see him and weren't quite sure what to expect.

At first she was kind of stoned faced and just stared at him.

Then she kept looking at us, the photographer they had, and just around the store. She did this for about 5 minutes, despite our attempts to get her to smile.

After awhile, something finally made her laugh and she giggled/smiled for a good couple of minutes. She was quite the little ham.

And then she started pointing and talking to Santa. It was like she was explaining to him what she wanted. Cute! These pictures aren't as good as the ones we got from the photographer, but they tell the story better.

A few days later, we did our annual gingerbread night. Steven and I have done a gingerbread house together since we were dating so it's because somewhat of a tradition. Last year we did a mini village that turned out to be not so much fun, so this year we decided on a gingerbread train. It was much better! Claire was zero help, but she was there. I had given her a wooden spoon and pot to play with while I made dinner earlier and she was still pretty entertained by that. She was interested in the candy, go figure, so she got a taste or two. I thought our finished product turned out pretty cute. We were especially proud of our caboose full of "coal" (my idea) and the "smoke" (Steven's idea) coming from the engine. We are excited to continue this tradition again next year and see if Claire will be more into it or not. One evening a couple of days before Christmas, I was busy wrapping caramels and Steven trying to get a few presents wrapped. Claire was busy getting into EVERYTHING and so Steven decided to put on How the Grinch Stole Christmas for her. He put her in her bumbo and gave her a couple crackers. It was so funny to watch her and she was so into it. At first she didn't even notice we were taking her picture. A few nights before this, Steven had built a blanket fort in her room and we all got in it and watched Merry Madagascar together. Isn't he the funnest dad?! Claire loved that too and, of course, I didn't get a picture. That seems to be a theme around here.

I still have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to post and like I said before, I told myself I'd do it before the end of the year. But, Steven came home early today and wants to go on a date tonight, so it probably won't happen :) Eventually it will. Have a safe and happy New Year!!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

***I have some serious catching up to do here, so please bear with me. I promised myself I'd at least get this month done before the end of the year. Nothing like waiting till the last minute :)

We had planned on getting our Christmas tree up the Monday after Thanksgiving for FHE. We had the tree and all the decorations out and ready; but for some reason or another, it didn't happen that night. So, we planned on the next night. Needless to say, Claire and I were sick the next day. Then Steven got it, then Claire again, and so on. We finally got around to doing it on Sunday, December 5th.

Claire was such a big help getting all the decorations out for us. She even played with and tasted them to make sure they were all ok :)

She actually was really fun. She got to put her very own "Claire's first Christmas" ornament on the tree, but I forgot to get a picture of it. (Don't worry that she got 3 more personalized first Christmas ornaments! I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all, but it just goes to show how she's not spoiled AT ALL.) It was fun helping her put the ornaments on the tree and even more fun trying to keep her from taking them right back off. Eventually she got bored and decided she liked a small snow globe better. At least it kept her busy long enough for us to finish decorating the house. I have to give Steven a shout out on the outside decorations, too. They were great! Sadly, once again, I didn't get a picture. I know, I'm that awesome. All in all, our first Christmas decorating experience with a small child was a success!