It's the Holiday Season

I love Christmas time!  Who doesn't?  Hazel and I have been decorating and listening to Christmas music constantly since Thanksgiving.  This is Hazel's 3rd Christmas, and she can understand a bit more this year, so we tried to do more Christmas-y things and attempted to teach her the real Christmas story.  What I think she got out of all of it was this - Lots of lights, Santa Claus, baby Jesus, soft sheep, donkey costume, Christmas trees, red train, and "Jingle Bells".  I still don't know where she learned "Jingle Bells" because it's not like it played that frequently on Pandora.  It's pretty funny though to hear her sing it with her own additions and omissions -- one time she stayed up during her nap time and just belted it out for about a half hour.  Awesome. 
Some of our holiday festivities included:

James's holiday party

A Favorite Things Party with friends

Our church Christmas party (no go for Santa's lap, just Daddy's)

Nativity play time

The North Pole Express in Grapevine with the Dunnings

 

 Hazel loved riding on the RED train with her cousins and drinking hot chocolate afterward.  Santa even gave her a bell!  Later that week, we watched parts of The Polar Express (some parts are slow for a 2 year old).  We also drove through a neighborhood with tons of lights, and Hazel really enjoyed that, especially with her window down.  

Now on to Beaumont...