tree lighting and santa

Our little town does a small tree lighting. The art center sets up crafts for kids to come in and make ornaments to hang on the tree. Last year at the tree lighting I was huge and pregnant and wanting to meet my baby so bad. This year my big baby colored and rubbed her hands all in glitter. She ran around the art center waving to other kids and admiring herself in mirrors. 

 silly daddy

 and a crazy baby

Before I even started taking her off my hip she started freaking out. It's so weird because she never acts like that with anyone. After I picked her back up she gave Santa a high five and got a candy cane. She held onto the candy cane for dear life until she started chewing on the wrapper and peeling it off. I had to pry it from her. 

 Staring at Santa from afar 

 Since the street was closed we let her walk on her own home and she was so excited! She ran and looked in every window. I think she is done with wanting to ever be in a stroller. Now if we can get down listening and staying close by. 

I just realized Elinor has officially lived at our house for a year today! It seemed like the longest 15 minutes ever to get home from the hospital. All I wanted to do is lay in my own bed and snuggle my baby!

It's Santa!!

I had got an email from our mall that Santa was coming soon so I doubled checked to see if he was already there. While my mom is here I wanted her to be able to be with us for some of our traditions. We dressed Elinor in her new dress that Dave picked and bought her and headed to the mall...right during naptime. We got there and she was so tired and wanted to just eat and sleep but wasn't a mess yet. I thought oh it will be quick, there is no line and then I'll feed her. We walked up to Santa and she clutched on to me tighter. We stood and talked to Santa for a little bit (with a pushy elf that wasn't very friendly trying to speed us up) and then I handed her over. She looked at him then at me and cried so hard. We bought the crying picture because every kid has one right? When I got home I checked the code at the bottom of our picture. I was just expecting to see the picture we bought but was surprised to see I could download all the pictures that were taken.

We may try again. I've never seen her cry when being handed to someone else. I think if we actually had to wait in line, she could see other kids it would go better. She got over it as soon as I picked her up. We stood looking at ornaments for a little bit and she tried taking them all off..good to know for when we get our tree.

See Elinor's first picture with Santa here 

santa!

We are a little crazy and decided Elinor needed to see Santa. We were supposed to go to Dave's work christmas party later that night so we went to the mall on the way. She was so good! Of course since she doesn't do much

After we got Jamba Juice and her picture taken I started to feel achy and sick. We skipped the party and headed home. We've done a whole lot of snuggling in bed and napping today and I feel a lot better. I think a just needed a lot of sleep.

enchanted village

We took Dorie to Jordan's Enchanted Village last Friday. It's one of our special holiday things we always do with her(last years post). I'm sad because we won't be making it to Zoolights this year. 

We have been during crowded times but it was pretty much empty when we went. It was so nice to take our time looking at each display. The only bummer was Santa wasn't there! I swore I read he would be there during that time but of course the time she was looking forward to seeing him he wasn't there. There was a sign saying he would be back at 7...it was 4. She wanted to wait for him to get back but we convinced her getting popcorn was a better idea. Oh the other bummer was Dorie is finally tall enough to see the polar express 4D ride but since I fell under one of the "conditions" we couldn't go. But she didn't what she was missing anyway. 

tights and knee highs! I tried really hard to dress normal this day

cardigan-old navy dress-H&Mmama tights/knee highs-target shoes-gap

Enchanted Village

After our detour on Saturday we went to Jordan's Furniture to see the Enchanted Village. My Mom had gone when she was little and brought my older brothers but hasn't seen it since the early 70's. It was the opening day so I was afraid the lines were going to be awful but I guess since we got there so early it was empty.

Every couple minutes or so Dreaming of a White Christmas starts to play and it snows!

 Dave loves going to the post office

We tried to get tickets for The Polar Express 4D Ride but the next available wasn't for another 2 hours so we had to skip it. I'm sure we will go again soon though. It is free to walk through the Enchanted Village but the ride is $6.