'Tis the Season!

Last year, Christmas was all about surviving.  Isaac was two months old and we were definitely still trying to figure out how to do this whole parenting thing (not that we have it figured out by any means yet... but at least we're getting more sleep now!)  We were a LOT more stressed out financially since we were living off of savings and what Andy made working part-time while going to school.

Needless to say, we had a lot to make up for this year!  Even though there was so much more that I wanted to do, I think we had a pretty good year.

We kicked off the festivities by setting up our nativities on a balmy day just after Thanksgiving.  Despite the 70 degree weather I put on the Josh Groban Christmas album, found our nativity sets, and got to work!  Since we don't have a mantel/fireplace in our apartment to put a nativity on, we had to use our bookshelves. By next Christmas I plan to have a ledge/mantel to put at least one of our nativities on!

A few days later we went to an event put on by the Allen Stake where Andy's sister Lindsay lives.  Members of the stake donate their nativity scenes from around the world and they display them for anyone to come see.  It's a really cool event!  We saw some really cool nativities, including this really cute one:

One day I mentioned to my mom that I needed to find the traditional Christmas movies (Rodolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, etc).  A few days later I found this in the mail:

All the Christmas movies!  Thanks Mom!

 Winter in Dallas may seem like all fun and games, but there were a few days that helped us get into the Christmas spirit.  One morning we woke up to this:

 I tried to take Isaac out in it, but that lasted all of 2 seconds since it was freezing cold and windy!  We promptly came inside to warm up with our first (and only) hot chocolate of the season (so far).  Isaac thought it was just about the greatest thing ever.  I then got to work tracing Isaac's hand to make some mittens...that still haven't been made.  Whoops!

 The next week, Isaac and I went to go see a puppet version of The Nutcracker at the Dallas Children's Theatre that's just up the street from our house.  We went with Andy's sister Lindsay and her little girl Abbey, Mackenzie and her two youngest boys, several women they knew and their kids, and my friend Aarika and her little boy Ben.  I was worried about how Isaac would handle it, but he LOVED it!  It just lasted an hour and he thought the music was fun and the puppets were awesome!  I can't wait to take him again next year!

We couldn't get pictures during the performance, but I got this cute picture of Isaac and Ben after the show.

 Soon after that, our apartment complex put on a Breakfast with Santa.  We went and met up with our friends Kara and Clay and Ellery to eat some good food and get some priceless pictures.

 Isaac wasn't so happy about sitting on a strange man's lap, but luckily Santa was a good sport about it!  Kara got some really cute shots of him though!

Overall, we had a lot of fun this Christmas season.  There's so much that I'm excited to do in 2013 when Isaac is old enough to really understand what's going on, but this year was just about perfect.