Santa, cookies and a smelly tree

We had a very Christmas-y weekend. The pouring rain on Saturday didn't deter us from our church's annual Breakfast with Santa event. Santa pancakes, crafts and a visit with a very real-looking Santa was too good to pass up.

Maddie was excited to see Stella Dot and her friends Finley and Elliot. Our table was hopping with babies and toddlers!

Santa pancakes start the morning off right.

Maddie and Stella Dot took a number, literally, and waited for their turn with Santa.

She got a little closer to him than she did last year. She took the candy cane he offered and spoke to him. She was really interested in his belt buckle!

Maddie and Finley mix it up at the crafts table.

Mason has been working on a new skill, holding the rings. He's very interested in them, but can't figure out how to put them comfortably in his mouth.

No ponytail holder? No problem, Frank says. He used a paper towel! Later, when I asked Maddie where her ponytail holder was, she said, "Just use a paper towel."

Sunny catches some ZZZs in the sun.

Later Saturday, I decided to break out the flour and cookie cutters. I really wanted to make Christmas cookies with Maddie this year. It's something I don't get the chance to do every year, but now that she's older it may become one of our traditions. It was a lot of fun and of course, there was cutting and rolling and icing and gingerbread man-shaped sprinkles!! She is obsessed with sprinkles. We have even put sprinkles on a banana to get her to eat it.

Drinking glass, a.k.a. rolling pin.

She wanted to wear her apron and asked me to wear mine. There was flour everywhere but the end results were worth it. She loves cookies as much as I do. I'm so proud of my little cookie-making helper.

On to Sunday. It was pretty freaking cold. I headed back to church for nursery duty and Frank kept the kids entertained. Wait, looking at the pics he took, I think it was the other way around.

"Geez, kid. I'm too old for this!"

Super tickles!

Later, we headed out to the Jordan Lake Tree Farm, a neat place my friend Joni told me about just that morning. We had no idea how cooooold it really was. Mason had three layers on but his little fingers were cold. We have no photos of picking the tree, or of Maddie jumping in the bounce house for ONE hour. It was her first time in a bounce house and she loved it. Didn't I tell you the tree farm was cool?

Our first live tree since the Christmas after we were married -- in 1999!! It smells wonderful.