We didn't do as much as I had wanted as a family this Christmas season due to everything else that was going on, but I definitely wanted to make sure we made it for our town's annual Christmas tree lighting. It was originally scheduled for December 7th, but due to bad weather was pushed back to December 14th. The town we live in isn't big. As a matter of fact, town hall is a very quick 10 minute drive from our house. The festivities weren't huge, but it had a nice small town feel to it.
Everything took place in front of our town hall.
There was free hot cocoa and cookies for everyone as well as a small petting zoo. They had two sheep, two goats, and a pony. Marshall was beside himself excited about the animals!
At the end of the night, they had all the kids count down and lit the town Christmas tree!
Santa showed up to, complete with a police and fire escort! I didn't get any good photos of that. Marshall was so excited when Santa showed up we decided to wait in line to try and get a photo with him. When we finally got to the front of the line, not only had the battery in my camera died, Marshall freaked out and wouldn't go near him! I ended up with a crappy photo on my phone of Marshall reaching for the sucker they were trying to bribe him with. Oh well... there's always next year!
Since we were in Michigan the past 2 years (to make up for the previous 2 years we were in NY), we spent Christmas on the East Coast this year. We offered to host Freddy's family for Christmas this year now that we're in a house that has room for guests and festivities. They traditionally do family Christmas on Christmas Eve so I spent most of the day and night before trying to get our house ready. I didn't get everything completed that I wanted, but I guess it was good enough!
Here is what I was able to do in our dining room. I actually got to use my holiday china and the fancy silverware that we got for a wedding gift. Our dining room table only seats 6 so with 10 people to feed we had to add our card table. In the future we hope to get a nicer table set that can expand to feed 10 - 12 people.
After dinner we opened presents! Freddy and I got some gift cards that can be used to purchase things for our new home. We also got a beautiful ornament from his sister that has our home address and family name on it as our "New Home" ornament. Marsh, of course, was the center of attention and made out like a bandit!
I had already decided to not put out Marshall's gifts from us until that evening so that he would have stuff to open on Christmas morning. Following in the footsteps of my mom, I was up until 3:00 AM wrapping gifts!! But in the end it was worth it. I fell asleep on the couch and when Marsh came down the stairs the next morning, I heard him say "Ooooooh.... pretty!"
Marshall doesn't quite get the Santa Clause concept, but he definitely gets how to open presents! It took like three hours to open everything because he had to play with his new toy as soon as he opened it before he would open the next gift. There were lots of cars, trucks, and musical instruments added to Marsh's toy collection that morning!
You can see the carnage :) While I missed being with my family this year, we had a nice little family Christmas on Christmas morning. It was followed up with pancakes for lunch and a nice dinner at my friend, Michelle's house.
I hope you and your family had a nice holiday and are looking forward to 2013!
~AKO
