Christmas Countdown 6-10

December 6th:

Decorate the House for Christmas

Hallie was ecstatic that this day had come!  She loves to decorate for holidays!  After she ate her breakfast she asked if she could put her Christmas dress on.  I of course said no. (I'm mean I know.)  To which her reply was, "but I need to wear something fancy to decorate for Christmas!". Such a Hallie thing to say. So we made a compromise and found something she could wear, that was fancy, but was not her new Christmas dress.

Buddy the Elf also came knocking on our door to watch and report back to Santa if  we are all on the naughty or nice list. 

Paige has learned to scoot around the house by pushing her feet and spinning.  While we were decorating, she managed to push herself under the chair.

She also discovered her tongue, and she makes clicking sounds with it all day. She thinks it's pretty great.

December 7th:

Visit the Reindeer at Thanksgiving Point

It turned out that we needed to go pick up our license plates for our new car from the dealership in American Fork this day, so it was a good day to just continue on to Lehi and visit the reindeer.  They are in a little round pen out on the plaza by the water tower.  As we walked around looking at them I couldn't help but think of the movie Prancer.

It looks sunny outside, but we were freezing!  The wind was incredibly cold.

We headed into the store there, and wandered around trying to warm up.  They have a little atrium in the shop that Hallie thought was so fun!  Plus, it was warm in there.

December 8th:

Go to the Ward Christmas Party & Go Visit Santa

At the ward Christmas Party all of the Primary kids sang a couple of songs.  Hallie was so excited to sing Jingle Bells, because Sister Wilde had made them some jingle bells, and after they were done they got to keep them!  She had talked about it all week.  Plus Hallie and Gracie were darling and held hands the entire time.  So cute!

After helping clean up the party, we headed out into the cold to Riverwoods to visit with Santa.  Hallie had  talked for the last few weeks that she was going to be so brave and talk to Santa.  But when we got there she got more than slightly nervous, and didn't want anything to do with him.  So naturally we bribed her. :)  She got to go on a horse drawn carriage ride after and watch Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer before bed if she would talk to him, she didn't even have to sit on his lap. (I thought it was a pretty good deal)  She agreed, and we got in line.   I was impressed, I held her and she told Santa what she wanted, we took a couple pictures and left.  Walking down the stairs from Santa's little house, Hallie could hardly contain herself.  She had talked to Santa!  To say that she was excited was an understatement.  She was so proud of herself, and happy that she had done it.  I was proud of her too.

After visiting with Santa we took a little carriage ride around Riverwoods to see all their beautiful lights.  I loved listening to the horses jingle bells ring as they moved.  There is nothing like it.

It was cold!  we were glad they had blankets there for us to use!

Our little family

Eric and Hallie in front of the carriage and horses.

December 9th:

Decorate the Christmas Trees

Since we had decorated the house Hallie was constantly asking when we could decorate the trees.  But we had to wait for a day that Eric was home, and it being the last week of classes, it made it difficult.  So Sunday seemed like a good option.

Every year we get new ornaments for the tree.  Each girl gets their own, and we get a new family one.  All three we bought at the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Oregon.  The hummingbird is Paige's.  My grandma, who Paige's middle name is after, loved hummingbirds so we thought that was fitting for her first Christmas.  The squirrel is our family one for the year. We just thought it was fun.  And the shoe is Hallie's.  Definitely wouldn't have been my pick by any means, and if I remember correctly I tried to talk her into something else.  It didn't work.  But it makes her happy, so that is all that matters I guess.

Paige hasn't been napping so well recently, and fell asleep in the high chair while we were decorating the tree.  So we just let her sleep, though we did take the bottle out of her mouth.

We had a bit of a lighting problem, which we resolved by a quick run to my parents and swapping out trees.

Finally ready to start decorating.

Hallie with her shoe.  She loves it!

Paige and her hummingbird.

Our littlest angel on top of the tree.  We decided she probably wouldn't be too happy up there, she is too wiggly.

All decorated.  Paige was loving this little teddy bear ornament from Hallie's first Christmas, and wouldn't look at the camera for anything.

 Hallie also loves Rudolf! Grandma Lorie let her borrow this cute figurine that Hallie loves!

I don't remember if I have shared the story about our star or not.  But either way, here it is.  The very first Christmas that Eric and I were married, we decorated the tree, and obviously wanted something to put up on top.  We went to the store and looked and stars or angels, or whatever, only to realize that we really did not have the money to spend on one.  So in the next few days I still really wanted something on the top of our tree.  I dug around in my craft supplies, which were pretty limited at that point, and found this thick wire.  I bent it into this rough shaped star, with a coil on the bottom for the top of our tree.  Was it ideal?  No.  Is it perfect or even beautiful? No. But it worked, and it filled our want of a star.  In years since, we have looked at other tree toppers, and could have easily bought one, but neither Eric or I want a new one.  This little imperfect star, has so many memories, and is such a part of our Christmas's that it is fitting.  Eric said this year as he put it on the top of our tree, that he wouldn't care if we ever got a new one.  This one is way better than anything we could ever buy.  I agree.  It will always be something that we treasure.  (Even though Eric thinks he is the one who made it. :) )

December 10th:

Eat Dinner on Our New Christmas Plates

Eric had a super busy day lined up, with finals and an orientation for his internship, today.   So I knew today's activity needed to be fairly low key. (That is, until he threw up out in the parking lot after his orientation and just emailed his final paper into his professor) My mom bought us these cute little Christmas plates for Hallie to use, so we had dinner on them.  It was simple, and different than the usual.  Even though Hallie was not happy that we were having baked potatoes and broccoli for dinner.  Because she does not like potatoes.  Which was news to me. :)