Our First Holiday Season

Thanksgiving was spent in our usual way, with our incredible non-related relatives. I was SO excited to introduce her to more of our family who hadn’t met her. Our house was actually quite in comparison to previous years because a few people couldn’t make it home. While we missed them, we had a wonderful time. Lola loved the stuffing and the broccoli casserole. She was a rockstar eater, and had a great time sitting next to cousin mason at the dinner table. She also enjoyed sitting on the couch with Great Grandpa, which is one of my favorite things to watch as well.

We bundled her up in a snow suit and took her to the holiday lights parade in down town Wheaton. She was having a great time, despite her not being a fan of all the layers. She was probably in more clothing at one time, then she had worn in her whole life, but it was also colder that night then she had ever experienced as well! She liked the floats and lights on the trees but when Santa’s sleigh came down the street, she about lost her mind. It was SO cool!! There is definitely something magical about the spirit of Santa because my child who would have no experiences with Santa other then the books we read, knew that there was something special about that man in the red suit. She had fun with Grandma and Grandpa too.

 

The next day we were fortunate enough to get to take her to sit on Santa’s lap with Easter Seals. There are NO words to adequately express how much we LOVE Easter Seals and the amazing things that they do there. A part of what they do for the families is rent out the mall prior to opening so that the kids can sit on Santa’s lap with a less chaotic experience. They also allow the parents to take pictures which NO mall ever allows. We got Lola dressed up in her Christmas dress and took her to meet Santa. Kevin and Tiffany met us there as well so that we could take Lola and Mason together. Lola thought Santa was the greatest thing ever… Mason, not so much. He wouldn’t go near sitting on Santa’s lap and was crying his eyes out, WHICH Lola found to be hilarious. OOPS… Don’t worry we are working on being kind! Haha After they saw santa they got to make ornaments, eat snacks, and Mason’s favorite, get temporary tattoos…like father like son right. They also had various entertainment you could listen to, which apparently wasn’t what the kids had in mind, because we looked over and there was Mason, pushing Lola’s stroller toward the door. Apparently they were heading somewhere, more than likely to do something mischievous, but none of us were invited. I’m pretty sure we are going to be in big trouble with their cousin only schemes!

 

We're on our way to Christmas ....