it's that time of the year

So we started marking off the days REALLY early this year to gear up for Christmas and Santa. I think we actually started marking them off sometime in mid-October!

And when we got back from Florida, it was time to go get the tree! First we did our annual diner breakfast before getting the tree and our girl had pancakes. She's a big fan of going to the "Pancake Store" which is in fact our fire department's pancake breakfast, but she liked the diner, too.

And then we picked out a tree and our girl went nuts. She was running all over and yelling and screaming...she was very excited!


She helps daddy water it.

She decorated her own ornament tree with all the unbreakables.

And she helped me decorate the big tree, too!

And then we went to see Santa!! She's been so excited for this and I was so worried she'd be scared or nervous and end up not sitting on his lap, but she did great! We waited for him to arrive in his sled at the Community House and as soon as she saw him, she yelled out "Santa! I've been good! I'm nice! Can I have presents???" Oh, it was hilarious! And then we went inside and she said she was not going to sit on his lap...oh no. So we waited our turn and walked up on the stage and as soon as we saw him, she turned and walked in the other direction. But when I picked her up and walked over with him, she was ok. So I quick sat her on his lap, told her to smile and say cheese (she's been talking about how she NEEDS a picture with him to add to her photo album since she has one with him from the past two years when she was a "little tiny baby"), snapped the pic and that was it. She did great! And Santa gave her a goodie bag, she said thank you and as we walked off the stage she looked up at me and said "Momma, I was so bwave!" Oh, she just melts my heart. The whole walk home she was so proud of herself and how brave she was and when we got home she proudly looked through her goodie bag and talked to herself about how nice Santa is and how much of a brave girl she is. She also watched the video of her sitting on his lap about 20 times in a row with a big smile on her face. And daddy and I were both proud of her, too.