The days/weeks leading up to Christmas

Since we love to play catch up....Let's check out my photos from the days leading up to Christmas (this will be a long post....sorry).

As customary, we went to Fantasy of Trees the weekend of Thanksgiving.  It always gets me in the Christmas spirit.  Elaina has been asking about going to Fantasy of Trees since July so she was excited, to say the least.

First order of business....ride the carousel.  She loves 'em.  She rode it a few times.

 Then we take off to do the myriad of crafts/items they have to choose from.

A hand print pot holder.  This would be our fourth one of these.  I love that we have them all through the years

Fingernail painting....

Showing off her newly painted nails with Anna and Elsa

Face painting...I am glad this one is free because you can't tell from the picture but this is really bad.  It was way goopy and smeared and didn't really resemble much of a penguin.  She wiped it off in the bathroom moments after I took this picture :)

And finally a pose

The next weekend, we went to have breakfast with Santa (our tradition) and to the mall to buy our family ornament:

 First there were pancakes....

Then we went to watch Santa arrive

Then we talked to Santa to tell him all those things you tell Santa.

And, a couple of poses....

 

Next was the mall to get our ornament.  This is literally one of 2 trips I make annually to the mall.  I know so many people who frequent the mall.  I am not one of those people.  While we were there Elaina said "I want to get my ears pierced."  We have talked about this off and on for a while.  We have always been okay with it but have left it up to her after explaining to her that it does sting a little and there will be cleaning and maintenance to do.  She has always then said, "I am not ready."  But, this time when she asked, I said if you are serious, the place to do it is around the corner.  

So, low and behold, we ended up there.  We got lucky because right when we walked in, there was a 5 year old getting her ears pierced so we got to watch.  I knew it would either go well and Elaina would follow suit or the other little girl would freak out and Elaina wouldn't go through with it.  

Well, let the pictures tell you what happened...I have got to tell you, I was so nervous about this but I tried not to show it.  She was so brave.  I think I was nervous she was going to think it hurt and cry.  She didn't even flinch.  I am such an over-reactor.

All the moments before...

This was the only moment of fear I could tell she had and by that time it was happening

And there you have it...  So pretty!

You only thought we were done this day....

We then had an appointment for a family painting with a twist event.  This was SO much fun to do as a family.  I want to go back.  Erik had never done it and he really enjoyed it as well.

Freshly pierced ears...

Step 1 completed

Step 4 completed

       

Masterpieces!  

whew!  I am tired after just going through all that.  That was 2 weekends.  We don't normally cram all that into 1 day but we had a busy December so we were trying to get some memories made.  I think we accomplished that!