Christmas Cheer 2015

We've had fun this holiday season with a good mix of continuing old traditions and starting new in our new community. One of the things we had to replace was our previous tradition of visiting Rose Tree Park in Media to see the park lit up. Luckily, we drive past the area's largest drive through light show every day to drop the kids off at daycare, and it was calling our name to check out!

The holiday light show at Shady Brook Farm has over 3 million lights, according to their website, and took about 20-25 minutes to drive through! The lights were super elaborate with cool themed sections like the 12 days of christmas and wonders of the world plus several sections of light tunnels and lights that you drive through/under. We all loved it, and will most certainly be back (Nolan wanted to go back this season already, but at $25/car, once is enough for one year!)

My favorite section - the enchanted forest

The light tunnels were awesome!

Nolan loved seeing his favorite characters like the Grinch, Sponge Bob, and Dora

Exit through the castle!

We also had to find a new place to get our Christmas tree this year. The weekend we planned to get it, we also met up with Nolan's BFF from his previous pre-school (his grandparents live in the area), and they recommended the local dairy store - Tanner Brothers, which I had been itching to check out anyway (any promise of farm fresh ice cream and I'm there!) The trees were great, and it was a beautiful setting at the farm. I'm pretty sure we'll be back!

Us with our tree we picked out!

Nolan and Daddy with our tree loaded up and fresh wreath for the door

We had a lot of fun decorating the tree at home this year. Nolan was SUPER into it and demanded more and more ornaments to put on. I didn't know how interested Emmy would be in the tree (she isn't) but wanted to be safe and only put non-breakable stuff up, which limits the number! We had to do a little re-arranging after Nolan went to bed since 3 year olds can only reach the bottom 1/3 of the tree, and he loved to clump them all together haha.  Nolan also had the honor of putting the star on the tree, which he loved!

The first ornament of the year!

Nolan the tree!

Dean overseeing all the activities

Pretty cute family!

Nolan was not happy we took his picture so he ran away!

My favorite ornament of the year - Nolan's art project from school :)

The tradition we kept going was making cookies for Santa! Last year we kept it more simple and made chocolate chip cookies (which happen to be Santa's favorite!) This year since Nolan is so into baking, we stepped it up with decorated sugar cookies. Nolan LOVED rolling the dough and pressing the cookie cutters down to make shapes. He mostly wanted to make "gingerbread men" but was convinced to throw in some candy canes, stars, and trees :)

Chef Nolan rolling out the dough

Pressing in the cutter!

Gingerbread man shape

The finished product after decoration

Time to taste test for Santa - which one to choose?!

Finally, since we didn't great pictures of Santa on the North Pole Express train ride, we headed to the mall to get a better Santa photo for Emmy's first Christmas! I didn't know what to expect with either kid and was blown away that we got such a cute picture. Nolan loved seeing Santa and wasn't shy telling him what he wanted for Christmas. Emmy didn't cry when being handed over, and when I requested they hold hands from behind the photographer, Nolan reached over and grabbed Emmy's hand. Heart melted!

Santa Picture 2015

This was a very fun Christmas season. Nolan was definitely feeling the magic and anticipation (is it Christmas YET?!) Lots more Christmas posts to come!