Belated Christmas Post - The Lead Up!

I guess I need to start catching up somewhere so Christmas it is! This year we decided that we would not be traveling for Christmas. The reasons were twofold 1) we would like to start building some traditions with Emma and Josh and 2) Emma had the opportunity to be part of the Christmas program at church. We kicked off the long Christmas weekend by baking cookies. As you can tell, Emma did not learn that less is more after last year so we still had some highly decorated cookies.

Josh did not have any problem eating them!

We started off Christmas Eve with a trip to the mall to see Santa after a failed attempt the previous afternoon. Note to self, check Santa's break times before trying to get in line. Anyhow, we waited somewhat patiently for our turn to see Santa. Emma was thrilled and Josh just wanted out of the stroller. When it was finally our turn, Emma went right up to sit on Santa's lap. Josh, however, had a death grip on me as I tried to put him in Santa's lap. I pried his little hands from my shirt and left him to scream and cry in Santa's lap. He was definitely ready to get out of there. Christmas Eve was also the program at church. Emma was supposed to have two lines that she would say with all the other kids and then the pre-K 3 and 4 also sang "Away in a Manger". Emma practiced very hard and was ready to go. She did a great job of singing and was so good sitting through the rest of the program. Brad tried to take some photos while Emma and Josh were dressed up but that wasn't really happening and especially not together. If one would sit, the other had something to be done and vice versa.

After Josh went to bed, it was time for hot chocolate and then get some cookies and milk ready for Santa.

After all the excitement leading up to Christmas, it was finally Christmas morning but I'll post on that later.