With January blustering itself in, it is hard to believe December 2011 has come and gone! I shouldn't be surprised, our calendar had events nearly everyday and with Evie really getting into Christmas for the first time, we had a blast!
Our first December stop was at the Chaska Community Center where we welcomed in Christmas (and Santa on a firetruck, although we got there just a tad bit late for that) with cookie decorating (and, as you can see by the pictures, plenty of cookie tasting), crafts, a visit with Santa and petting one of his real live reindeer (Titus was all about this, Evie, not so much)!
Our next Jolly Stop was to the Mall of America for the annual Viking's Holiday Christmas Party! It's hard to tell who enjoys the limitless rides, no lines and all the treats, Caribou and food you could ever want more: the kids or the parents! Clearly, as you can tell from the pictures, Evie is not a fan of men who dress up as anything, especially Santa or Viktor! We actually took two cars to this event so Chad and Evie could stay and shut the very last ride down!
The following week, we had a fantastic Friday in downtown Minneapolis! I always forget how much I love it downtown: Christmas lights on every tree, hot chocolate vendors, great shopping, resturaunts: what's not to love! We spent the morning at the Children's Museum of Minnesota. What a treasure! We easily could have spent an entire day there and still gone back for more. Evie loved the art studio and storytime the best! That same evening, we made a second trek back downtown (due to naps we had to travel back home in between) to attend the Holidazzle Parade. Chad was able to get us tickets in the "hot seats" although we both agreed with such a great night, we would have perfered to be out on the street with everyone, although you couldn't beat the hot chocolate! Uncle Marc joined us for the fun and everyone around us got a kick out of Evie on her "cell phone" calling goodness-knows-who to tell them when to send the next float!!
We spent Christmas Eve in Alexandria with champagne, crab legs, cookies, swimming at the Y and of course, presents! The highlight for me was Evie lighting the Advent Candle at church (with a lot of help from Grandma Lucie). Christmas morning, after a wonderful visit from Santa, we headed to Little Falls to see Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie Enie, Great-Grandma Deen, Uncle Marc and even a surprise visit from Uncle Marco, Josh and Mitch! Again, great food, treats and presents were had by all! In fact, the next morning, Chad went into Evie's room thinking she was crying because she had to go to the bathroom, when in fact, she was crying because she was sad Christmas, and all the presents, and all the people, was over! Hard to blame her!
We hope your holidays were as eventful and joyous as ours and hope your longest list this Christmas, was the one that counted your blessings!
We hope your holidays were as eventful and joyous as ours and hope your longest list this Christmas, was the one that counted your blessings!
No comments:
Post a Comment