We took little A to the Christmas story time. At the end Santa came for a visit. She was pretty excited to see him but didn't want to go anywhere near him. At first this was as close as I could get.
After they pulled out the candy canes she let me get a little closer.
We get a stamp after every story time. Usually it's the letter they're learning that week, but this week was a snowman. Little A LOVES the stamps and always makes me get one too. :)
One of my friends and I swapped babysitting one morning. She watched little A while I went to the theatre, and then I watched her girls while she went to get her kitty from the vet. The girls had such a great play. While my friend was gone they wanted to make a movie on my phone so I sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" while they danced. It was darling.
One of my other friends mother is amazing at crochet. She crocheted the cutest baby carrier for little A! She loves to carry her babies in it. My friends mother has a blog where she sells these and other adorable things. The blog is: http://cutsiecrochetbyannagae.blogspot.com/ Go check it out! Her stuff is so adorable!
Little A LOVES to play in the snow! I got myself some heavy duty snow gear so that we can play together. She hated to make snow angels last year, but loves them this year.
Her favorite thing to do though is eat the snow! The snow has been really powdery this year, no good for snowmen. So, I pulled out a bucket to pack snow in so we could build snow castles. She loved filling it up and then putting it on her face, lol!
She will literally lay on her belly and lick up the snow like a cat drinking milk.
Other favorites are building a snow tower and then belly flopping or sitting on it to smash it. :)
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She did really good about being gentle with them, and was pretty good throughout the month about not taking them off of the tree. We set all the presents out under the tree too. I was pretty nervous about it, but Allan thought she could handle it (and she did great last year), so we tried it. She did really well! There was just one gift that she kept opening over and over, ha! I re-wrapped that gift 3 times! Every time she opened it she would say "Oh!" She was just as surprised Christmas morning, lol!
I also made her a felt Christmas tree. She had a ball with that. She especially loved having me lift her up to put the star on top. Little A absolutely adores her stocking. She would come in every morning and give it a great big hug. We all enjoy laying under the Christmas tree looking at the lights. One evening she went and got her blanket and lay under the tree all snuggled up. It was so darling.
We brought treats to our neighbors, and made sugar cookies for our family. Little A loves to help me make cookies. She's getting better and better at putting frosting and sprinkles on.
She loved delivering them to our neighbors. It's so darling to see her excitement about everything. We had a nice visit with one of the women that lives down the street from us. She reminds me of Hilda (a woman who went to church with us when I was in high school). Hilda would call and sing happy birthday to us on our birthdays, she wrote to me on my mission, and did so many other things to help and support our family. I love visiting this neighbor, she always lifts my spirit, just like Hilda did.
Allan worked really, really hard to get my gift done before Christmas, and made it just in time! It turned out SO great! We had to order in the hooks, so they came in later, but we've absolutely loved using this. Little A loves to sit in the middle spot. She'll hide there and then yell for us to come find her.
Christmas Eve we always have crepes for dinner. Then we read the Christmas story, open one gift (an ornament for the tree), get ready for Santa, and then read "The Night Before Christmas". Little A was SO excited for Santa to bring her presents. She was NOT excited that he was coming to our house to do that. But, she was VERY excited to set out a tray of cookies and mild for him, and a carrot for the reindeer.
After we set the tray out we read the Magic Key poem about how Santa can come into houses that don't have chimneys. AG gave it to little A. It was perfect!
She was so excited we were worried that she wouldn't be able to go to sleep, but she slept really well!
The next morning she was super excited about her gifts. She loved pulling things out of her stocking. She was so happy about the orange that she tried to take a bite of it, peel and all! Santa left her some goodies and a bunch of animals for her farm.
When she's really excited she'll wave her hands up and down. She got stickers, markers, books, some food for her kitchen, a hat and gloves, a fabric doll set (like paper dolls), alphabet and number foam pads, and a tricycle.
She really loved all of her gifts. She's played with them non-stop since then.
Allan got a saw he wanted, a tank for spraying for weeds, some ratchets for his truck, slippers, snow boots, and a belt.
The next morning we headed to Allan's parents for a visit. We brought our snow gear so we could play in the snow. Little a had a blast! We got cousin H to play with us for a little while too. He liked throwing snowballs and having me make cars and airplanes out of snow. Allan and I had a snowball fight for a little while too! Little A thought that was hilarious!
Grandma took some time to do a craft with little A. They made a snowflake ornament and a snowman ornament. She loved that snowman so much! That was one ornament that we couldn't get her to leave on the tree. She just wanted to play with it. Thankfully it was made out of foam. We're always so grateful that Grandma will take the time to do those things with her. A always really loves it!
We had the family Christmas party and exchanged gifts. Grandma and Grandpa gave little A a My Little Pony Play Doh set, and a chef outfit! It is SO darling on her! She loves to wear it when we cook dinner. I'm loving that she doesn't get completely covered in food now! She also LOVES the Play Doh set. We play with it almost every day. They got Allan and I an Ipad and some mats for our kitchen. Those mats have been SO nice! My feet and back are loving them! We were also given a family activity. We can't wait to use it!
The following week we went to my families Christmas party. Little A got a beautiful porcelain doll from her great Gram. She loves it so much! She says hi to it every morning and after every nap.
Some cute fabric books from Aunt K1 and B. She has loved snuggling up and reading those while I am getting ready for the day.
A princess robe, towel, and slippers from Nana and Pops (and the fabric doll set also). She LOVES this robe! It is so soft and snugly. She usually wears it when we're down in the basement playing, it's kind of cold down there and it's perfect to keep her warm. We were also given two more family activities! Yay!
We went and visited little A's birth family also. They got her a vacuum, a cleaning set, some adorable clothes (they always find the cutest stuff!), and some food for her kitchen! We have had so much fun with all of it! She especially likes the broom and duster from her cleaning set. She will randomly get them out throughout the day and sweep and dust for a while. :)
Little A LOVES playing Hide-and-Seek. She can't ever be quiet when she's hiding, the suspense really gets to her, instead she giggles and squeals the whole time! In one of her books it shows a little girl hiding in the coats of her coat closet. One day I took A to hide with me while Allan was being the seeker. I took her into our mud room, and we hid in Allan's work coats. She loved that spot so much that later she tried to hide there herself. She took off on her own after Allan found us another time. We heard her squealing and giggling and then heard her make this confused "Oh" sound. We came into the mud room to find her trying to hide in Allan's coats, but the coats were about a foot over her head! She was so confused as to how get up to them to hide, lol! She'll also go hide in one spot and then as we say "ready or not, here we come" she'll change her mind and go squealing across the room to another spot, ha!
