It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here!

We got our tree,

decorated it, over the course of a few days,

stuffed and mailed our Christmas cards (with lots of help!),

unpacked the audience that has now patiently viewed many the impromptu play or concert,

dressed like Santa (times two),

acquainted ourselves with our very own elf!! (the girls named him Henry Jolly, and he is always watching!)

and allowed a bigger elf to put up our outdoor Christmas lights for the first time in 6 years!

We also made sure to introduce this newbie to all things Christmas!

And we got all of these crazy cousins together for a photo shoot,

indoor and outdoor.

We got festive at preschool,

hung our stockings with care (notice Vanna Annie showing these off),

and experienced our very first Christmas pageant with Megan starring as a dove. Okay, maybe not so much starring as featuring...and forgetting that she was supposed to sing...and adjusting her wings and looking around while the rest of the class was singing...

but, she sure was a cute dove!

That same week, we brought the girls with us to Matt's faculty dinner, and we left so late that they changed into their jammies. We had to get a picture of them in front of the tree at SI. If you look closely, you can see Tessa's frown because it's so chilly. Sorry, Tessa!

The next day we were back at SI and the faculty kids and grandkids got to see Santa. The Cecchin cousins are faculty grandkids, so this is always a fun day. Here are some of these cousins goofing around on Santa's chair before he made his entrance.

Once he made his entrance, our girls were more than happy to accept what he had to offer!

The twins both yelled. "I'm Santa, too!!" when Santa came in the room. And, they sang a couple verses to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." No Santa fear in this house this year!

Five more days - yikes!! I hope everyone is enjoying the last few days before Christmas as much as we are!