Holiday Traditions

We have lots of fun holiday traditions, however, in light of the events of the past few months, we didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to them so we decided to save most of them for next Christmas. We did however, get a couple of them in. One night we bundled up and went for a drive to tour the Christmas lights of our home town. Next year I will remember to take a picture of our favorite house (it is actually one of our neighbors and Aiden talks about it all year). One of our stops was also to see Santa.

I can't believe this is Aiden's 4th Christmas. He was only a month old for his first Christmas so we didn't take him to see Santa that year but here photo's from visiting Santa the past two years.

I thought this was going to be the year Aiden would actually sit on Santa's lap, tell him how excited he was for Christmas, as well as what he wanted Santa to bring him. Well, he did sit on Santa's lap but not willingly and in his usual pose (screaming and reaching for mom). In spite of the screaming and unpleasantness from Aiden, Santa was great and even gave Aiden a gift and eventually got Aiden to give him a high five with the bribe of candy canes and a jingle bell.

Brooklyn had a much better experience, as she slept through her first Santa experience.

Another family holiday tradition is to make a gingerbread house from scratch. We did have grand plans of making a replica of my families cabin this year. Unfortunately, time got the best of us and we had to settle for a store bought kit. We were able to have a decorating party with our friends one evening (thanks Stewarts). Here are the results. Tune in next year for hopefully something a little more grand. This was last years house.

This year... Aiden decorating "his own" house!

Shae in all his decorating glory.

Look at that beautiful tree!
Our finished products! Merry Christmas!