Its beginning to look like Christmas

This past week the winter holidays arrived at our house including getting the lights on the house and some early holiday preparations. But, everything about the weekend had to do about the holidays and getting ready for them.

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to the zoo. We attended a special breakfast and event for members where Santa and his elves were also invited. It was a lot of fun and Ellie got some one-on-one time with Santa without rushing. They had a nice conversation and the elves were quite entertaining. We also enjoyed some carolers and a string trio playing holiday music. After the breakfast we partook in some holiday crafts and face painting. There was also a special visit with some reindeer. And as a bonus, we had all the rides on the carousel we wanted. It was pretty cold and rainy which put a little damper on things and meant that we didn't spend time visiting with the zoo's regular inhabitants. However, there was a close encounter with an armadillo for Nick and Ellie.

We then headed to the mall to see Frozen. It was a cute movie that Ellie really enjoyed. While we were at the mall, Ellie as astute enough to note that Santa must have travelled really really fast if he got to the mall before we did to spend time with kids there! And yes she spent some more time with Santa at the mall and we got a traditional Ellie with Santa photo. As expected she asked for the American Girl twins with the hair and their bed. Unexpectedly she asked for a butterfly Barbie. Santa wasn't quite sure what a butterfly Barbie was but was familiar with the American Girl twins and their accessories.

After we all returned home and had a good rest. It was time to deck the halls of our house. Slowly over the week we had been pulling out the holiday decorations and putting them up. But Saturday was reserved for the tree set-up and decoration. Ellie was quite excited and we all had a great time decorating the tree. Ellie actually handled a majority of the ornaments. But since we wanted some above 45 inches from the ground, Nick and I chipped in too.

On Sunday Ellie and I had invited a few friends (and one little brother) over for some cookie decorating. Ellie helped me roll out and cut out some holiday shapes like candy canes, gingerbread men, circles (ornaments), stars, and stockings. The kids did some decorating with sprinkles only on unbaked cookies which was quite fun to watch. For some cookies the kids were very diligent with their placement of sprinkles and were clean and tidy. However, for some others...including Ellie's candy cane, there was a superfluous amount of sprinkles spread onto the cookies. After the sprinkles only cookies were in the oven, some prebaked cookies were decorated with frosting and sprinkles. I'm pretty sure more frosting ended up in their mouths than on the cookies...but they had a great time. I was silly and ran to the store to pick up some snacks for the kids including grapes...however, I should have realized that the kids would snack all they needed to on the cookies and frosting/sprinkles. Then they played at the house for a little bit...totally hopped up on sugar. It was so fun to watch the kids work together and decorate the cookies. They all had a great time and it was the perfect group of kids. There was quite a bit of silliness but in the end they were all proud of their work and each walked away with about 4-5 cookies each to share with their families. 

So yes, our family spent the weekend getting ready for the holidays. We have a lot on our schedules still including a trip to Chicago, a family party, school holiday party, etc, etc all before Christmas Eve. But we are definitely in the holiday spirit now!