Busy Christmas

It's barely one week into December and we've been so busy!

   

We got out our Christmas aprons and baked cranberry bread.  Gabriela is such a fun helper. She MUST have her step stool and apron for any kitchen activities. She is an excellent pourer, stirrer, and taster, but has some trouble resisting the urge to play with the flour.

 Chaney is so sweet with his cousin.  Here they are, watching the daddies bring in the giant Christmas tree. Gabriela is wearing her elf hat and Christmas apron made by Nana, and I'm proud to say that I made those holiday jammies for my little girl.  Glad I ventured into the holiday boxes and found these snazzy socks for Gabriela.

 Auntie Meliss is so sweet and thoughtful, she also brought home a tiny tree for Gabriela. Can you see her smelling it? She was thrilled!

 I had to pick and choose which ornaments would be light enough and special enough to fit on this Gabriela sized tree.  Gabriela helped decorate both trees. She placed a ton of ornaments right in a row next to each other. 

 

A few days after this big beautiful tree was decorated, we came home to find it had fallen on the floor, ornaments had crashed on the ground, and the lights were all wonky. Chaney was devastated. I read the kids Christmas books in our bed while the other adults cleaned up.  Gabriela was so worried she asked him, "Chaney?  You wanna hold my mom's hair??"  Cos that's what always makes her feel better.
We stayed up late cleaning and redecorating. I am happy to report that the tree is just as sparkly and festive as before.

 

Gabriela has been making ornaments.  She painted this one, and crafted two other ones with Auntie Liss.

 We went to Tilden Park for their Christmas lights extravaganza.

 Gabriela learned about candy canes.  She concentrated so hard until she'd chomped up the whole thing and then exclaimed, "THAT WAS YUMMY!" She's pointing them out in books and even requested another one yesterday.

This is the Santa from Tilden Park. The boys weren't convinced this was Santa. Gabriela was just happy he gave her a tiny candy cane, just her size.  She gave Santa a high five and said she wants a present for Christmas. I'm pretty sure Santa can make that happen.

We read Christmas books every night before bedtime. Gabriela's favorites are The Polar Express, Fancy Nancy's Splendiferous Christmas, and If You Take a Mouse to the Movies.

She loves to sing Christmas carols.  Her favorite one goes like this, "jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Oh MacDonald had a farm, E I E I O." I need some video footage.

Gabriela definitely got the Christmas Queen gene from me.  Anytime we show her anything Christmas related, she freaks out with excitement. She asks for Christmas songs whenever we are in the car.  She yells, "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! I SEE DECORATIONS!!!!" when we're driving. She plays with the Christmas Little People every day, and my favorite part is that, without any prompting, she decorated her baby stroller with a christmas ornament on each side. Photo coming soon.

Last night we watched The Polar Express and it was so magical. Gabriela recognized when they were narrating from the book, she cheered out loud multiple times, and watched the whole thing in awe  and amazement.

The holidays are so much more fun with a little one to share the magic with.