Holiday Prep

We've been in full holiday prep mode since we finished cleaning up Thanksgiving dinner and I LOVE IT!!!  Campbell and I have been very helpful to Mom this year by setting up the Nativity scene, hanging our ornaments on the tree and decorating all the "little trees" around the house.  Dad strung up some rockin' outdoor lights on the back porch and our house feels like a little chrysalis of Christmas.  "Chrysalis" is a fancy word for cocoon.  I learned that from one of my books and I think it is a beautiful word.  After decorating, I wanted to take some pictures as I would like to carry some more weight on my blogging-endeavors.  Here are some samples:

Not too bad if I don't say so myself.  

We also started two new holiday traditions this year: decorating a gingerbread house and breakfast w/ Santa at Camp Puhtok:

Campbell found her friend, Ellie, in line for Santa

Cam & I weren't too sure about sitting on Santa's lap, but we saw a few of our friends from school and that made it a little easier after seeing everyone else talk to Santa.  The first pass through the line I decided I wanted to ask for Hello Kitty stuff and Campbell wanted "giraffe stuff."  Then Campbell changed her mind to a penguin - but a real penguin she can keep at the zoo.  So when we got to the front of the line, I got a little nervous and said I wanted a penguin, too.  I sat on Santa's lap and Cam stood next to him w/ Mom.  But after a few more pancakes, we went through the line again and both sat on his lap for a picture!  Santa was pretty cool.  He also played the accordion and knew every Christmas song I could throw at him.  Mom was also impressed by his red accordion.  Afterwards, we made some crafts and took the shuttle back to our car which I think was just as fun as the whole breakfast part.

Later that day we met up w/ some friends at the Fire Museum for more fun:

And you believe it's almost Christmas?  To top off the preparation, we got about 6-inches of snow yesterday in which we got to play for a bit.  Cam was not too keen on the snow but I think it was just a little too much for her to navigate.  The snow came down so fast that there was a full blanket of snow everywhere you looked.  Even Briggs was a little confused by all the wet, white stuff but she must have channeled some ancestors because she went like a nut around the snow, even with her bum leg.  I think it did her some good to get some exercise and enjoy the snow.  I hope we get some more snow tomorrow and they can close school!  Fingers crossed!