christmas-y weekend

We had a fun and festive weekend around here.

On Friday afternoon, the kids and I went out to a neat local country store to mail Celia's letter to Santa Claus and get their annual Christmas ornaments. Celia and Henry liked looking at all the Christmas things, and there was a special mailbox there for letters to Santa. Then we made a stop at the library. It was a quick but successful trip. Henry doesn't have the best track record for good library behavior, but he is getting better.

On Saturday, my parents came down and Nana and I took Celia to see The Nutcracker. It was loooooong, because it started late and intermission was really drawn out. Celia got very wiggly by the end, but did great and really liked it. She was trying to imitate the dancers and dance in front of our seats during the show. When we got home, she and Henry put skirts on and danced around the house.

Today we went to another Christmas event that's always really fun. The town next door has events for kids all afternoon, and then Santa arrives at the town common on a firetruck and there are a band and chorus with Christmas music. Last year we went early and did some of the activities, but today it was really cold out and Chris wasn't home, so I waited until a little later and we just went to the town common.

Waiting for Santa! (And Daddy, who met us there.)

Henry really doesn't understand what Christmas or Santa is about, but he had fun. He liked seeing the firetruck and police cars, but was a little scared by how loud the sirens were. Celia was so excited to see Santa, and talked all day beforehand about whether or not it would be the "real Santa". We had talked about how sometimes we see people dressed up as Santa, but she would know if she saw the real one. The Santa at this event is a really good Santa, and tonight she told Chris that it was the real Santa. Anyway, Celia got some candy canes from Santa's bag, and got to shake his hand. She was thrilled.
We listened to the music, and then went home for dinner and had hot chocolate stirred with our candy canes.

Back to the workweek.