Holiday Fun

We have had such a fun round of holiday activities this year.  Having Charlie really understand Christmas this year has made the holidays so much fun, and has gotten me so motivated to get out and do some fun activities.  Charlie is loving all the build-up to Christmas and is super pumped about Santa coming to our house.  Hopefully his wish list will stay consistent; otherwise, poor Santa won't know what to bring!

Here is Charlie and sweet Blythe at the Children's Christmas parade.  Clint had the bright idea of riding the DART train downtown for the parade, and I think that was the real highlight of Charlie's day.  He could not get over the fact that he'd been on a real train, and is desperate to do it again.  But the parade was pretty awesome too!  It was so fun watching the parade, and really nice to get to watch it from the comfort of Blythe's hotel room.  As usual, she was quite the little ham.

These two were completely enthralled by the giant balloons.

Miss Evie really enjoyed the parade (and running around the hotel room) as well!

Trying to get a photo of Charlie's favorite float: Curious George on a fire engine.  Doesn't get much better than that!

I love B's "Mrs. Claus" dress. :)

Later that night, we did a carriage ride/lights tour through Highland Park with the Jordans and the Stoltzes.  It was a beautiful evening and such a fun way to get in the holiday spirit.  Evie absolutely loved the lights.  She sat so nicely in my lap the entire ride, occasionally belting out excited little squeals.  Charlie, on the other hand, got a little wild mid-ride and had to be bribed with the promise of cookies to sit on the seat.  But despite his wildness, we had a great time.  I definitely want to make this an annual tradition!

So excited about the ride...and, not surprisingly, voicing strong opinions on which horse he wanted to pull his carriage. :)

The Stoltzes.

The Burri.

The Jordans.

We also went back to the Dallas Heritage Village for their candlelight evening (we went to this for the first time last year and although I didn't really think we'd go again, somehow we ended up there again this year... :).  I wasn't expecting much, but it turned out to be so fun!  Both kids loved running around there, and Charlie was really excited about the model trains and the tractor-pulled hayride.  Here is my family listening to the carolers...

The trains were so cool--definitely Charlie's favorite part of the evening.  I thought he'd have trouble not touching it, but he exercised amazing self-control.  He was very militant with me about not touching as well. :)

The old-fashioned St. Nicolas at the Heritage Village is pretty funny.  Clint calls him "bad Santa."  Charlie knew something was different, but he just couldn't quite figure it out.  Evie has developed an intense dislike of Santa, and started screaming as soon as she saw St. Nick.  I decided to stop torturing her and have put an end to Santa/Evie pics until next year. :)

We capped off our night with a really fun hayride behind an awesome tractor.  Doesn't get much better than that!

We also went to see the trains at the North Park with Ford and Ryan (and their moms).  This is such a fun holiday tradition!  Charlie is obsessed--I really think he could have stayed there all day.  I had to drag him out when I was ready to leave!

 Evie really got into the trains too.  I think she liked them almost as much as Charlie (not sure that anyone quite approaches his level of train-love :).

  These three are SO cute together.  They are trouble!  (but so fun to watch :)

 Aside from the goofy pics below, the boys were surprisingly well-behaved at lunch.  I felt like I was eating with civilized human beings!

 We made a quick stop at a puppet show before we left.  Such a fun morning!

 And tonight, after a busy day of holiday parties at school, we settled down to watch the Grinch for the first time.  The kids had so much fun watching it (and I loved having a few minutes of down time to get dinner ready...amazing!).

We have also kept busy going to two playgroup holiday parties (too wild for photos!), the Snider Plaza tree lighting, and several other holiday events.  Charlie has loved every minute of it, especially when sweet treats are involved (he isn't eating much "real" food these days; I think he is saving himself for holiday cookies).  Evie likes our events for the most part, but I think is getting a little worn down by all the running around.  Even though it's exhausting, I do love this time of the year!