Lucy's first visit with Santa ...

OK. Last Christmas post, I promise!!! But I couldn't skip Lucy's first visit with Santa. We went to Santa's house at Bridgeport Village, and Santa was wonderful. He had a little Elmo elf (which Lucy is holding), and that pretty much made the two of them instant friends. :-)

We purchased some of the pictures their "real" photographer took - and they were super cute! I might eventually scan them in to add here, too ... but for now, this one I snapped will have to suffice.

Christmas Tree

I know these are a little out of order now, but good grief! There are just too many Christmas-related things I feel like I need to get documented here!

This was our trip into the tree field at Nana's house to find a Christmas tree (with Sherry, Ryan, and Cam, too!). It was a beautiful day for a Christmas tree hunt.

I decided to be "sneaky" and put just a few ornaments on the tree this year - in an effort to avoid the "NO!'s" we would be shouting approximately eight million times throughout the month of December ... but surprisingly, Lucy really didn't mess with the tree very much. She "helped" me decorate by adding her Santa doggy - (and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto were put on the tree multiple times throughout the month, too!:).

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care ...

and now, they are all down and packed away until 11 months from now. I continued my (3 year) tradition of taking ALL Christmas decorations OUT of my house on Christmas night. I have a problem. I know it. But I just canNOT stand waking up on December 26th, being surrounded by Christmas decorations when Christmas is 364 days away! Most depressing feeling EVER. ... So, to avoid that problem, I just make it all disappear on Christmas night and that way, I don't have to think about it.

Although - just a while ago, Lucy was playing with some of her Christmas stickers, and there was one of a Christmas tree. She brought it over and said, "Where's Christmas tree?" I replied that it was "right here" (meaning, the sticker she was holding). And then I got, "Where's Mama's Christmas tree? Go get it!". Oops. I guess she wasn't quite ready for the Christmas tree to go away. But she'll get over it. She has a dump truck-sized load of new toys to keep her mind off of it...

And now all that remains are the outside lights. It takes quite a lot of convincing to get Scott to put them UP ... convincing him to climb up there and take them DOWN already might be difficult... they are beautiful though, and I decided all that hard work deserved to be posted here. :-)

Christmas Eve/Christmas Day 2010

Here is our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in pictures...

We started with Christmas Eve at Wes & Sarah's house (with Grandpa and Grammy Maureen), followed by Christmas Eve dinner and presents at Nana's house (and Lucy's new kitchen - yay!). Then Christmas morning at our house, then Great-Grandma's house for Christmas dinner, then back to Grandpa and Grammy Maureen's house ... phew! What a weekend!

(Just had to explain .. this is what happened when Daddy started loading up the kitchen into our car to take it home. She did NOT like that part! She didn't understand it was coming with us ... Jeff had to explain that she could take it home to play with Joy, and then she was OK.:-)

This dress was to-die-for adorable ... at least I thought so! She looked so beautiful!

Her hair was extra-cooperative for Christmas day, too - all the curls seemed to agree with each other just for this special day.

*And by the way ... I had several people ask me if I curl her hair. The answer to that is no - followed by my own question: How the heck would I curl a two-year-old's hair, exactly? I'm picturing her running circles around me while I chase her around with a curling iron. Yikes. That would be scary.

Although, come to think of it, there are those pink spongey curlers my mom used to put in our hair ... do they still have those? Somehow, I can't quite see Lucy sitting still for that whole process either though. It is a challenge to get one rubber band in it to keep it out of her eyes every day! :)~

OK ... back to the pictures...(sorry, just had to have that conversation with myself).

This chair Lucy is climbing on was one my Grandma bought when Uncle Ralph (her oldest) was a baby. She was so tickled that Lucy could sit in it at the dinner table. :-)

One of my favorite pictures of the day - Lucy with Aunt "Sephi".

I am convinced that when Scott sees a camera, he just closes his eyes until everyone is done taking pictures. Grrr....

And here is another favorite photo from the day ... Christmas wears a person out! :-)

Zoo Lights!

We had a BLAST (an arctic blast, to be exact) at the zoo lights with a bunch of our best friends this week.

It was definitely a COLD night, Lucy was sick and not quite herself, but thankfully, it was not raining! And we got there just early enough to avoid the insane line for the train (even WE waited for about a half-hour, but by the time we got off, the line had quadrupled!) At least we were waiting in good company ... :-)

Fun times on the zoo train!

Thanks friends, for spending this fun winter night with us! Can't wait 'til next year! :-)