Christmas | Celebrations and Traditions

Sophia’s cousin Lucas is in town for Christmas, which means that both Sophia and Grandma are in heaven!

I made some sugar cookies, along with a few other Chirstmas treats.  Once I started frosting the first cookie I realized how long it was going to take to make them look “just right.”  I got smart pretty quickly and enlisted the help of the toddlers.  They looked adorable, the kids had fun, and I wasn’t quite as busy.  A win all around!!

 

We took the beautiful cookies to the annual extended “Z” family Christmas.  Every other year, Lucas and his family spend Christmas at home in Nashville, so it was fun to see Sophia have a buddy to run around with.  It seems like it really feels like Christmas when there are children running around..


…even if it does get a little wild sometimes.


Our annual Christmas tradition with Sophia has been to visit Santa at the  Mall of America and then go to Build-a Bear to make a toy for a child who doesn’t have as many as she does.  Usually they have a Toys for Tots drop off, but this year you could donate to Project Bear Hugs.  They collect any bears and toys made and then distribute them to homeless shelters in the area. 

Our hope is that the girls grow up realizing that Christmas is about the gift of life that Christ gave us and what we can do to give to others.  My hope is that they remember giving more than getting when looking back on their childhood Christmas memories.

Here are our past outings:  2009 & 2010.

Maybe Santa isn’t the reason for the season, but he sure helped us get a cute holiday picture!  The elves at this particular Santa’s workshop are smart and have a stool next to Santa so you don’t actually have to sit on his lap.  A lot less traumatic this way!


I thought for sure that this would be the year that Sophia freaked out when she couldn’t keep the toy she was making, but she let go just fine.

Evelyn, on the other hand, was devastated when she found out she couldn’t keep this snuggly teddy bear.

The whole process seemed to overwhelm Sophia, but she did end up participating a little bit.


We faked Evelyn helping, but we know she’ll be more into in next year!

Another happy Christmas memory!