Happy Holidays :)

What a fun and busy December it has been so far and it's only the tenth of the month. The holidays are already in full swing around here. The tree is up and the cookies are baked. The presents have been bought and some of them have even been wrapped. The snow has fallen and the Christmas cards have started to arrive. The festivities have officially begun! It feels as if we've already done so much  this month and we still have so much to look forward to! Here's what we've done so far and what we've got coming up:

December 4th: Search for the Christ Child

 We got to portray the Holy Family. Claire was baby Jesus, I was Mary and my step-dad pretended to be Joseph. It was such an honor to do this. It really warmed my heart to see how the kids responded to baby "Jesus". They were so excited to come and see "Him". One boy even colored a picture and presented it as a gift. It was so incredibly sweet. It was such a great experience and it really put me in the mood for Christmas.

December 8th: Cookie Walk

My mom, sis and I all got together and baked cookies for the cookie walk. We found a great recipe for sugar cookies w/ cranberries dipped in dark chocolate. We made about eight dozen in one night. Five dozen went to the church and three dozen got frozen for the holidays. It was fun but it was a ton of work. I'm officially done baking for now!!

December 10th: Breakfast with Santa

Today we had breakfast with Santa Claus :) We did this last year as well without much success. Nora was afraid of Santa and refused to go anywhere near him. This year she let me hold her while we stood nearby, ha ha! Claire had no clue what was going on and tolerated being placed on Santa's lap. We got some really great photos and had fun listening to Christmas carols from the choir.

December 18th: Claire's Baptism

Baby Claire is going to be baptized! I am so excited for this. Our good friend Harry is going to do the honors. He also baptized Nora and married me and Nick so I'm thrilled that he is baptizing Claire for us as well. I'm also excited to be doing this during the holidays. It just feels fitting somehow.

December 24th-25th: Christmas Time

We'll be spending the holiday with family and friends. Although it can be a hassle running from house to house I'm grateful to have so much family. Even if they are a little crazy ;)

Happy Holidays Everyone!!