Merry and bright...

I love the month between thanksgiving and Christmas. It's so full of joy, activities, family and friends. We pack a lot into this month from decorating to baking and special events. It's so much fun!

H hosts a gingerbread  house decorating party each year. This year, we only invited folks from her preschool and ended up with 14 kids, 3 infants and 9 adults.  It was so fun! The kids did a great job on their houses and we finished the night eating pizza before they left.

Making the gingerbread dough....

Decorating the houses...

H's buddy hosted a cookie decorating party. H had so much fun filling every square inch of cookie with icing and decorations! After decorating, the girls had fun playing and running some of their sugar energy off :) 

As a special treat, we went to Disney on Ice. H loves everything Ana and Elsa! It was a no brainer to take her to see this magical show. She enjoyed dressing up as Elsa and toting her Ana/Elsa doll along. She was mesmerized by the show and loved seeing each character come out. Her buddies from school were there and they had a great time dancing and singing along to the music. 

This was a special mommy/daughter date. We left sister home with Daddy. I soaked up the time with my big girl! What a treat!

We did have to leave a bit early. My sweet girl got a bit scared. It wasn't when the big snow monster made an appearance, like you'd expect. She did great with that! Instead, it was when Hans was being mean to Ana. She was visibly shaking and began to cry. There was no amount of sweet talking or lap holding that was going to help. 

And finally, we of course went to Polar Express night. This is quickly becoming a favorite tradition of ours! We met our friends and their little boy. 

This is a great event because Santa is there! Even though it is a popular event, the line to see Santa is always short and Santa really takes his time with the kids. We were SO proud of Hannah this year! She hopped right up into Santa's lap and told him everything she wanted. She was such a brave girl. This was her first year without tears :) It was precious! 

We love this season of joy, celebration, and waiting. It certainly was merry and bright!