It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This past Saturday, we volunteered at the annual Mayo Families Connection Winter Carnival. I was in charge of the sucker tree but since Brandon and Halle came along, Brandon ended up doing most of it while I took Halle around to some of the activities. There were a bunch of crafts, food, some little sports activities, a bounce house, Santa and a horse sleigh ride. Halle wasn't really into anything, including Santa, except for pulling off the suckers on the tree...she mainly just liked walking around. However, just as we were about to leave I thought we should go on the horses and sure enough, she loved it! A lot of our friends were there so we had a great time.

That afternoon, we got our first snow storm of the year which put us into Christmas mode. So, we headed out and got our Christmas tree. Brandon found the perfect one and we loaded it up quickly since it was kind of cold! I must say though...after the gorgeous and long Fall that we had, I can't complain that it is just now getting cold.

We decorated the tree a couple of days later since Brandon was on call the day after we got it. Halle wasn't so sure about the lights at first until we got the one string of colored lights out that we have. Then she thought they were fun to be wrapped up in! I stayed up late putting all of the ornaments on the tree so that Brandon and Halle could be surprised the next morning. I put all of the safe ones on the bottom so that we can teach Halle that she can look but not touch (or pull!). She is doing a pretty good job but there are two that she really likes - the Mickey mouse ornament and of all things, the BBQ ornament that we received for the year we moved into our house - she loves the fake ketchup bottle...ha! She would just eat ketchup plain if we let her (and she sometimes does)!

Decorating cookies with Adam and Avery!This year, I really wanted some sort of advent calendar so that I could remember to do little activities with Halle...so, thanks to Pinterest, I found an easy advent chain to make and arranged it in an order I thought we could do. Here is Halle standing next to it...I can't believe how old she looks on this picture! Here is what each day says:

1. Fill a box for operation Christmas Child
2. Make an advent chain
3. Visit Santa Claus
4. Make Christmas Cards
5. Decorate the tree
6. Make hot chocolate
7. Write a letter to Santa
8. Make handmade ornaments
9. Dance to Christmas music
10. Sing Christmas carols at home
11. Go see Christmas lights
12. Make a gift for someone
13. Wrap presents
14. Color a Christmas picture
15. Hang paper snowflakes
16. Visit a retirement home
17. Bake cookies
18. Decorate a gingerbread house
19. Make snow angels
20. Read a Christmas book
21. Watch a Christmas movie
22. Read the Christmas Story
23. Make a birthday cake for Jesus
24. Read the Night Before Christmas
25. Call Grandma and Grandpa