It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Bring on the Christmas events! Last weekend, we went to the Happy Birthday Jesus Party at our church--a lovely reminder of WHY we celebrate in the first place. Peter and I were "in charge" of the 4-and-5-year olds, much to Rebecca's delight. The magician was a big hit, especially when he turned an unsuspecting dove into a chihuahua. Molly's age group had an international-themed dinner party, and she happily recounted that she was wrapped up as a Christmas gift--hot dog style--by the bigger kids and "we won because I was so cute"--whatever that means! No pictures of these events....

Saturday night Peter and I had a night out, our first overnight child-free time since Amelia's birth over a year ago. We saw a play (hilarious, called Altar Boyz), ate dinner at a restaurant without highchairs (Asian fusion tappas, if you must know), listened to live music at a bar, and had dessert at a nice restaurant downtown. Again, no pictures of this event....

Finally, an outing with art: Sunday we headed to the Pink Palace for the Festival of Trees/Enchanted Forest.

Trees are decorated with a theme, sponsored by local businesses. The girls had a three-way tie for favorite--the High School Musical one, the Hannah Montana one, and the cupcakes/candies one. Baby Amelia liked anything she could grab (which was an awful lot).

The Enchanted Forest--with its animated fuzzy creatures, gingerbread village and train sets--was a winner. Molly and Rebecca enjoyed the Scavenger Hunt (find the red mailbox, the elf with a brown beard, the raccoon with a tool box, etc.). Amelia did her trademark point-and-giggle move and liked walking over the confetti snowflakes.

The Enchanted Forest was a hit when I was little--used to be in department store downtown, then later at the gigantic Agricenter, and now at the Pink Palace museum. Last year--my first time to go in many years--the creatures smelled like moth balls and cat pee (did not deter the girls' enjoyment). This year, they clearly had been cleaned up and spruced up.

The whole event culminated in a visit with Santa. Amelia was exhausted and crying, though the photographer did snap one picture with her looking less-than-thrilled but not crying. Rebecca is in her fake smile phase, as you can see, and Molly looks like she is 7-going-on-17 here. Yikes!



Bring on the Winter Wonderland!