Inflatable Santa

This year, we have an inflatable Santa in the front yard outside Hailey's window, and she is obsessed with it. She has to see if he is awake (inflated) in the morning, and at night, she has to tell him good night and that she loves him before she goes to bed. And during the day, she just randomly checks on him to make sure he hasn't fallen over, and if he has, she tells Jeff and I to go out and "help" Santa.

I never thought we were the "inflatable yard art" type, but it's been so hilarious watching Hailey react to Santa, that I'm hoping to buy another one on clearance after Christmas :-)

Gingerbread house

Hailey had so much fun making a gingerbread house this year...mainly because she enjoyed eating all the candy and frosting! She liked putting the candies in the icing, and then in her mouth :-) She also bit the head off of both gingerbread men and wanted them to go on the roof. So we just used the icing to "glue" the gingerbread man to the roof and then covered him with candy. Hailey has enjoyed eating off the gingerbread house for the past couple of days...

Advent calendar

This year I wanted to start a tradition of doing the Advent calendar. I used to LOVE doing the chocolate ones each year as a kid, so I wanted to do something similar with Hailey. I found this awesome house at Pottery Barn Kids and had to have it. I filled it Hershey Kisses, Chocolate gold coins, beaded necklaces, hair pretties, and little Toy Story figures. Some of the things wouldn't fit behind the doors, so I just wrote notes, like a little treasure hunt, to lead Hailey to the item.

She it having SO much fun opening a door each day, and she knows she only gets to open one at a time. We have been video taping her reaction each morning and will compile it in to one video after Christmas, it should be pretty cute.

Snowflake Lane

A week or so ago, we headed to Bellevue to check out Snowflake Lane. It's at Bellevue Square and is on a street in front of the mall that is all decorated. They also have performers that play the drums and sing. Hailey really liked the music and the people dressed up as Frosty the Snowman. There were lots of pretty lights, and even snow that was pumped out of the buildings.

Decorating

Hailey really liked decorating the tree. She wanted to line up all the ornaments on the floor instead of putting them on the tree, but she eventually decided it was fun to put them on the tree too. This was the first year that I put garland on the tree, and I really like it. It makes the tree more sparkly!

Christmas tree hunt

We went to the tree farm to find the perfect tree. When we got there, I told Hailey that we needed to pick out a tree, and she said "I want one with lights on it!" I then explained to her that we would put the lights on it once we got it home. Then she said "I want a BIG tree!" We found one pretty quickly, and once we got it home and inside the house, we realized that it wasn't as big as we thought. So next year, I think we will bring a tape measure :-)

Hailey had fun wandering around "the woods" and after a couple of minutes out in the cold, said that her hands were cold and she needed hot chocolate. We have created a hot chocolate monster.

White Thanksgiving

We woke up on Thanksgiving to about 3 inches of snow, and it snowed all day long! Although it was beautiful, and Hailey loved it, I was sad because we missed out on my families Thanksgiving dinner in Seattle because of the nasty roads. :-( Jeff had to work and I didn't feel comfortable making the drive with Hailey, so we opted to stay home and play in the snow. We will be celebrating our "makeup" Thanksgiving today at our house! It will be my first time making a full Thanksgiving dinner, so I am kind of nervous, but thankfully Jeff has been such a huge help in helping me prep everything.

Hailey had so much fun playing in the snow, and loved to eat it and just walk around in it. I startled her when I tossed a snowball at her tummy, but she soon wanted to make "balls" and even got me in the face with one! Hailey did a pretty good job keeping her gloves on, but that didn't stop her from telling us that her hands were cold and needed hot chocolate to warm them up! She told us that everytime we took her outside, it was hilarious. And of course we gave her hot chocolate, because who can say no to that?!

Santa Pictures!

Hailey loved Santa this year (after she spent a little time getting to know him). Here are the pics of her last 3 Santa encounters.

Chuck E. Cheese

Starbucks

I like Starbucks now, it's amazing!! I still don't like coffee, but I really like soy Chai Lattes!