Christmas Preparations and Christmas Eve

Christmas has been really exciting this year because Bailey is beginning to understand the season a little better. We went to Hobby Lobby one morning and she stood in front of a nativity set for about 5 minutes in awe of the whole scene. It was so fun to see people stop and smile at Bailey's excitement. She has learned who Joseph, Mary, Jesus, camels, Wisemen, Shepards, and Santa are, the use for stockings, the love of Christmas trees, excitement for presents, and the joy of seeing Christmas lights. We went to our annual ward Christmas party and Bailey and Maddie met Santa. Amazingly once again Bailey had no problems sitting on Santa's lap. She is just curious as you can tell by her face. Bailey enjoyed olives and a lovely green cupcake! We also went shopping for our Christmas tree. Although it is getting more expensive, it sure is a fun tradition! On Christmas Eve we spent the day together as a family. As odd as it may seem, we went on a picnic for lunch. (Odd because it is so warm on Christmas Eve when Dave and I are so used to it being cold.) Bailey was so excited to be in the little house and to look out the window.
Bailey, Maddie, and I went on several walks in Decmeber. One walk, Bailey decided she would collect several treasures in the bottom of her stroller. The treasures included "cone pines" as she called them, acorns, leaves, and who knows what else. We decided to make a snowman out of her treasures and it is still hanging on our Christmas tree. It was so fun to see how excited she got. She even colored the face of the snowman.
We also got a 1000 piece puzzle which Dave ended up doing pretty much by himself while I worked on Pajamas. The puzzle is also a tradition I enjoy and hope to continue.
The night of Christmas Eve we read the nativity story, drove around the neighborhood looking at lights, and openend our Christmas pajamas. I think Bailey's favorite gift of the whole season was her pair of Lightning McQueen slippers. She plays with them every day. It was so fun to see how excited she was about her slippers and PJ's.
Sorry these pictures are all over the place because I do not really like this new set up. Maybe I am doing something wrong but the images once they are downloaded are just a bunch of letters, numbers, and sybmols?!? So enjoy the random assortment of pictures. The one of Maddie is just showing how fun her hair is. I can't believe that at two months I can do her hair in two pigtails! I love it and it is still red!