Gearing Up For Christmas

This has been a busy month filled with many Christmas preparations. One of our first jobs was to put up and decorate our tree. I was very excited to have a Christmas tree this year as Ben and I have never had a real tree...not to mention a "normal" sized tree either!
The ornaments are frequently found laying around the house, but for the most part Nicholas has been pretty good with the tree!

Another thing we have done to get ready for the holidays is baking. Nicholas and I decided to make some cookies. I had all of the wet ingredients in and mixed and put the dry on top when Nicholas turned the mixer on full speed. Of course, this sent flour everywhere! Note that my counters are dark brown...

Nicholas' preschool had a party and Santa came to visit. Nicholas actually sat on his lap, which I was so proud of him for. He didn't even cry!

Santa brought books for all of the kids and Nicholas had fun opening his. He even gave Santa a hug before he left!

Next at the party came snack time. Nicholas put frosting on his cupcake (mom helped to spread it out a little). Then I gave him the cup of sprinkles. The idea was that he would sprinkle a spoonful onto his cupcake. No...not my child. He takes the spoon and eats a whole spoonful of sprinkles. Of course I took the spoon away so that cup of sprinkles wasn't ruined. I grabbed the other sprinkles so I could show him how this was supposed to work. As I put the cup in front of him he decides he has too many hard sprinkles in his mouth and uses the other sprinkle cup to spit them in...thus one cup of sprinkles ruined. Eventually he got to the part where he just eats his cupcake!

It has been a fun time preparing for Christmas this year. To see things through the eyes of a 2.5 year old makes it all so fun again. He is excited to open presents soon.

Nicholas is also learning to identify the people in the Nativity scene. He doesn't get the whole idea yet, but we've got to start teaching him the true meaning of Christmas now.