Christmas Favorites

We have been busy little Christmas bees this past week… we’ve now seen Santa three times in four days.  Kaelyn still isn’t a fan… but she’s getting there.  He can be rather intimidating… all that white hair and ho, ho, ho-ing. 

Our first visit to Santa was a bust.  I built it up all day and Kaelyn was super excited…. she even agreed that she was going to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas, a bike like Luke’s and water.  No, my daughter is not dehydrated.  She wants a fancy new water bottle that I thought I was being slick about buying while she was with me on a trip to Target and that she totally saw and insisted on holding throughout our shopping trip.  When we arrived home she wanted to know where her new water bottle was… it’s to bad it broke in the store… now we are keeping our fingers crossed Santa comes through.

I could tell the minute we got in line that her courage was faltering… and sure enough when our turn arrived… there was no way she was going to sit her cute little booty on his lap.  So just as in previous years, we had a family photo with Mr. Claus.  I was able to snap a cute pic of my three loves before our turn was up.

The second Santa experience was at a neighborhood park where there was caroling, lights, and Santa arriving on a decked out fire truck.  We were first in line to meet St. Nick… and even after her bestie Luke climbed on Santa’s lap, our girl would still have no part of it.

Speaking of our bud Luke, the other day  Kaelyn and I were cuddling on the couch.  I told her she was “my girl.”   “No, I’m Luke’s girl” she tells me.  Uh- oh.

Back to Santa… tonight we saw our first parade.  Of course the girls loved it.  There were able to run around before it began… Jimmy Johns subs in hand… making friends with all our parade neighbors. 

What's not to love about a parade?   The music, the never-ending candy, and all the floats with the jolly folks waving and yelling, “Merry Christmas.”  Kaelyn waved at every single float that rode by, countering with her own,  “Merry Christmas.”  Santa was the finale… and Kaelyn was very excited to see him… probably because she wasn’t going to be forced to sit on his lap.

And now for some of our Christmas favs...

Favorite Christmas Movie:

For me, it’s Elf, without question.  I love that movie… gives me the warm fuzzies.  You can't go wrong with a feel good movie that makes you laugh.

Kaelyn loves any movie that has to do with Christmas, and Lana will watch anything you put on, probably because she doesn’t have a choice.  They were pretty enamored with Mickey’s Christmas Carol.  I love that they can totally get into a oldie that isn’t all high-tech and animated- we like to kick it old school.

Edit:  Braxton was not happy I did not include his Christmas fav ... A Christmas Story.  I knew this was his favorite... we even have a little lamp statue... I was just tired after an exciting parade-filled night and forgot to include it.  Oops.

Favorite Christmas Carol:

Oh, Holy Night.  I get teary eyed almost every time.   

Kaelyn likes Jingle Bell Rock.  She can and will sing the chorus on repeat…

Favorite Christmas Tradition

Duh, all of them.  We are enjoying our advent calendar full of fun Christmas activities and chocolate. 

Choosing a new book to unwrap and read each day.

Baking yummy cookies for the neighbors.

Nightly bike rides to see the lights.  These have been hit or miss… Lana’s favorite thing to do during these excursions is claw at her sister’s face.  You can imagine Kaelyn’s excitement. 

The following pics are whats left over from our week... enjoy!

There is a little less than two weeks until Christmas… wonder how many more Santa sightings we will squeeze in ?!?