Chippy arrived on December 1st with a letter from Santa reminding them of the true meaning of Christmas and to take really good care of Chippy while he is here for the month! They were beyond excited. They talk to Chippy everyday, write him letters, draw picture of and for him, and they just sometimes just simply stare at him. My heart melted with pure joy the day they saw he was back. Ethan's excitement and squealing that came from his mouth was priceless, just wish I would have recorded it all. But every morning I get to re-live it again as they are both excited each morning when they see Chippy has come back in a different location.
We visited Santa a few weeks ago and visited the Christmas Tree at Fashion Island (our yearly tradition). Ethan asked Santa for a Fire Station house and Taelor wants a Barbie house...guess we will just have to wait and see what Santa brings. We wrote out our letters to Santa and dropped them in the "Believe" red mailbox at the Macy's store.
Each night I try and have some kind of "activity" for them to do. Most nights have been Christmas movies, but we have also made cookies, had a hot cocoa and popcorn night and craft nights. Here are a few other things we have on our list to do in the next 2 weeks:
- Santa Train Ride @ Irvine Park - we have never done this and we are so excited to go
- Ornaments- I am going to attempt to make salt dough ornaments, I will post up after I do them :)
- Gingerbread House decorating- we are going to a friend's house and having a decorating party
- Christmas lights- one night we will drive around to see all the Christmas lights around town
- Boat Parade- LOVE this!
- Balboa Houses- love walking down in Balboa and looking at all the decorated houses
- Rogers Gardens- I really want to go there and see how nicely decorated it looks
- Christmas parties...Love getting together with friends and family
- Shopping, shopping and more shopping...I actually love all the hustle and bustle of this time of year
- Ice skating...maybe...Taelor really wants to go!
- Toy Express Train- wish I could go to this, heard it was great! This weekend Amtrak will have a train that comes to Orange County all lit up with Mr and Mrs Clause, hot cocoa and caroling. The train collects toys and then heads to the next stop. You can check it out here.
So much fun stuff going on this month, but I am enjoying every minute of it, especially seeing Christmas through the eyes of children. In the midst of all of this I will be figuring out what to do for my New Year's Eve birthday girl! Oh the fun doesn't end...just looking forward to some vacation time after Christmas!
Hope everyone is having a great Season, take time to enjoy the sights, sounds, lights and all the fun of Christmas time!
Until next time...
{Lynnae}
