Getting Ready for Christmas

We did so many fun activities to get excited for Christmas this year!  I am glad I photographed most of them or it would be hard to keep it all straight!

One nice tradition is going to "Christmas at Grace", a Christmas party at our church.  First we sang carols, then had dinner.

Then we listened to a story and visited with Santa!

We also had to make some reindeer food for sprinkling on the lawn on Christmas Eve!

Adding ingredients

Shaking it up!

Tada!

Of course there was Christmas fun at school too!  They had their Christmas concert at the Simpsonville Performing Arts Center.  It was a big deal, with many special practices ahead of time, especially for Grady, who also played guitar in the show.  Poor Anson was very excited about the show but then seemed a bit run down that night.  Turns out he had an ear infection, which we discovered the next day.  It wasn't too big of a deal, but it explains why he looks a little lackluster.

Anson is front and center in a red and black sweater

Grady was on the end so he could access his guitar when he needed it

Blurry, but he is the middle one of the 3 guitar players

Here is a video of Grady's performance - they played a great Jack Johnson song

http://youtu.be/2OH1eMeC1PM

This is a video of Anson

http://youtu.be/ZIEvsFK0ghE

They also had Christmas parties on the last day of school.  I am the room mother for Grady's class, so I also baked lots of cookies (with Anson's help) and volunteered to help at the party.  It was a lot of fun!  They did all sorts of crafts and each got to decorate one of my sugar cookies.  They we took home the extras!

Here are the kids decorating the leftovers at home

And then they ate!

The next day Anson helped to make "Christmas tree play dough" from scratch.  It smelled Christmasy and had sequins that looked like ornaments.  They made trees!

The next day was Camille's birthday, so we took a pause from Christmas celebrations!

Oh Christmas Tree!

We got our tree a bit on the late side this year, but it works out since we like to keep it up through New Year's Day.  We typically go to the same spot each year, where they get trees from the North Carolina mountains.  This year Grady found our tree very quickly, and it was a perfect tree!  Good eye Grady!

Camille, hugging our tree

Grady, hanging the very first ornament on the tree

Anson gets in on the fun!

Camille even helped out a bit

Anson had the honor of hanging the star this year!

My sweet boys with the finished tree!

And here it is, in all it's glory, on Christmas Morning

I just loved decorating the tree this year.  Camille, though too small to really help, just watched and hung out with us.  The boys were so careful, and we all got so excited when a special ornament was pulled out of the box - Baby's First Christmas (we have quite a few!), ornaments from our first married Christmas, ornaments commemorating special trips, and of course the super special handmade ones from Grady over the past couple years.  The tree gets better every year!

Camille's 2nd Birthday Party

We celebrated Camille's 2nd birthday with a party at the Little Gym.  She had a fabulous time and it all worked out great!

Before her party, with Dada

Grady had fun too!

She enjoyed the balance beam!

The party room looked really cute!

I can't believe they spelled the name wrong on the cake, but I seriously didn't even notice until I looked at the pictures later!

Cookies I made

The whole group listening to the instructor

Grady giving Camille love on the bouncy track

Time for bubbles!

Anson hanging upside down!

Grady tried it too!

Finally, a link to a cute little video of Camille on the balance beam

http://youtu.be/cTqrnck6rSU

It was a great party - everyone seemed to be having so much fun!  We loved celebrating our sweet little Camille!

Christmas Parade

The same day as breakfast with Santa, we decided we would head downtown and check out the Greenville Christmas Parade.  We have never been to the big parade (only the smaller Mauldin and Simpsonville ones) so we figured it was time we went!

The parade was really good with real floats, several marching bands (Anson loved the marching bands), and lots of dancers.  We got a great spot, right at the beginning of the parade, where all of the dance groups would stop and do their full performances.  It was perfect!  It was also a very mild evening, so there were no worries about getting chilly.

Being silly while they waited

The police and fire trucks led the way!

A super cute float!

The Children's Museum float!

It was a really magical time with the kids.  One of those moments you just savor and realize that THIS is what Christmas is all about - spending time with family and just enjoying all the excitement that the season offers.