Since Hadley is now at an age that she sort of seems to understand Christmas and such. I have been trying to make a conscious effort to start holiday traditions. Last year I really wanted to get her the Little People Nativity set, but it just got away from me, so this year I knew I had to get it. I think it is a great way to start having conversations about the meaning of Christmas. Since she isn't quite two yet, this year I have just focused on getting her to understand that the baby is baby Jesus, I am not sure how much she gets it, but I have to start somewhere.
On Saturday, we headed to the Wills Point Christmas Parade. We took Hadley last year and it was a cute little parade. I like to get to see my students and the local organizations from the city in which I work. I also knew that the small neighboring town, Elmo, would have an Elmo in the parade, and while that meant little to Hadley last year I KNEW she would GO CRAZY this year. I was right she did, she squealed in delight, which was shortly squelched by the Santa riding two fire trucks behind him. As Santa passed us, she quickly hid her face in my shoulder and grabbed on for dear life. Overall Hadley's favorite part was picking up candy and putting in her bag. She hadn't really had candy before, and I made the mistake of letting her have a piece, now EVERYDAY since she asks for candy...I guess a piece a day won't hurt, right?!?!
As I have already mentioned, Hadley has had her first trip to Santa this year, that didn't go as well as I had planned. She seemed to like Santa, just wasn't interested in sitting on his lap. So this past Sunday after church I had the idea to try again at the Bass Pro Shop. When we got there we were told there was a two hour wait to see Santa...umm, no thank you. So instead we walked around. Hadley saw Santa from afrar, but immediately said "No Santa!" They had some reindeer that she enjoyed petting and a huge snowman I thought we could take her picture by. Immediately she screamed the loudest scream I have ever heard out of her and exclaimed "No, snowman!!!" Being the "smart" mom I am, I thought I would divert her attention by showing her a huge stuffed bear (I thought she would like it because she likes to say bear growl and then she growls, well that not a good idea! She screamed again, and kept saying over and over "No Santa, no snowman, no bears..." (that was the first thing out of her mouth the following morning- luckily I am a counselor, I might have scared my child!). She did like watching the fish so we spent about 20 minutes doing that, she seemed really impressed by the huge catfish!
Also earlier in the week, I had created a video message from Santa (it was free and awesome, moms you should look into it). Hadley seemed to enjoy hearing her personalized message from Santa. It allowed me to pick something that she had been working hard on this year to highlight (saying please and thank you). I picked the option for the nice/naughty child- I wanted to keep it real!
Monday night, we headed to Athens to the Land of Lights. I had never been before and had heard it was pretty good. When we lived in Athens we traveled to the one in Lindale, because I was told it was AMAZING and of course I have been to the one in College Station many times (I am still determined to get Hadley to that one this year!) They had a three hour wait over the weekend, but I heard that Monday was a slow day, so as soon as my mom got home from work, we loaded up and headed out. We got there at 6:15, there was no wait at all, in fact NO ONE was there. IT was perfect. We were able to take our time. At first Hadley seemed a little scared, but a few moments in she really seemed to have a ball. I thought it was pretty good, much better than I was expecting!
Last night, we did our first Christmas craft and made Santa ornaments out of Hadley's hand print. It was a cute idea I saw on Facebook and Pintrest and was really happy with how cute it came out, it might be fun to do each year so we can see how much she has grown. The next couple nights we will be doing some Christmas baking. I am excited to try a new recipe I found on pinterest for Christmas goodies (I was late to Pintrest, because I was afraid I would be addicted, and I was right)!
Here are a few random pictures I came across and hadn't posted yet. For Hadley's birthday pictures we had balloons and for a good while she was obsessed with them, they were all she wanted to play with. In fact, when she sees the pictures with the balloons in them she gets all sad and asks for her balloons, guess I know what I need to have handy for her birthday! I also wanted to point out the adorable zebra flannel pj's they are adorable and SO Hadley.
While we were in Humble for Thanksgiving, while cleaning out the attic, someone came across a pair of my old tap shoes. Hadley loved putting them on and hearing the "tap, tap, tap" as she took each step- I am telling you dance lessons are happening SOON!!
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