Holiday Kick-Off

This year I have been completely ready for the holiday season. Mostly Christmas, but Thanksgiving is lumped in there too since it is a time to gather with family to make memories. I plan on doing everything holiday this year since Nat is old enough to get into it a little more. I am more than thrilled to be old enough (and now have children) to be SANTA.  It gives me great joy to anticipate the reaction from Natalie when she sees her new kitchen! She is going to go nuts (or be bashful and shut down completely as she so often does).

So to kick off our holiday fun I discovered that Santa would be riding in on a boat to the Bass Pro Shop's Winter Wonderland tonight. I of couse put that on our calendar and dragged Brian along. I suited Natalie up in her cool Christmas attire thanks to my friend, Kayla.

How cute is she?!

We got there around 4:30 for some free cookies and hot chocolate (even if it was 75 degrees outside still) and waited for Santa's arrival. Natalie kept asking where he was.

You can't see the boat he was riding it, but it was pretty cute.

Natalie didn't mind seeing Mrs. Claus up close, but Santa......

didn't get the same greeting. She immediately turned her head away from him. She didn't cry or get scared, per say, but she was not about to show herf face!

I figured this was a little preview of the meltdown that might occur when we asked her to sit on his lap. So, we decided to do prepare her a little bit by explaining that she was going to smile, say hi, sit on his lap, say cheese, ask him for a kitchen (that she may or may not get), and walk away.  She actually rehashed this to us a couple of times before we actually got up there! She's a hoot!

We waiting 45 minutes so we killed some time with other cute photos. Unfortunately it didn't even cross my mind to take the nice camera so all I have are phone pics. *Now it should be noted here that Brian actually DID think of bringing the nice camera and then decided we probably wouldn't use it anyway. WHAT?! He didn't bother to run that by ME! Ugh. Boys.

Coloring a Santa Stocking

 

Her smiles just crack us up. She almost looks pained.



and finally the grand prize photo where she did not meltdown and did exactly as instructed (including asking for a kitchen!).......

a photo of the photo with Santa!

She was only mildly fearful!

I just love this Santa. Legit. And how sweet is that little one?! My goodness.

 

 

As stated in the heading, this is just the kick off. The following includes our other must-do holiday festivities:

1. Holiday Train in local town

2. Christmas Parade and Tree lighting in local town

3. Christmas light looking with milk and cookies (stealing the milk and cookie thing from you, Susan)

4. Possibly riding The Polar Express (money might spoil this one)

5. Christmas crafts at home including a felt tree on the wall with ornaments (Liz, that's you)

6. Maybe a family campout under the tree (this one is from my friend, Sarah)

7.  Baking and decorating Thanksgiving and Christmas cookies

8. Annual day of baking with my friends Ally and Stephanie

9. Christmas dinner and get-together with close friends

AND

10. Anything else that pops up that makes me say, "heck yeah!"