Pre (and post!) Christmas fun!

Each year, we fill the month of December with a lot of fun activities as we get ready for Christmas.  The kids have two advent calendars - the first is a new, wrapped book each night, and the second is a specially little activity each day.  Here are some pictures of a few of those activities:

Ugly sweater party in the clubhouse of the apartment complex:

Holiday get together at the Bluhm's:

Decorating the tree:

Holiday 'stroll' at Central Market:

Hot chocolate bar at home:

Christmas craft:

Riley's winter orchestra concert:

Leighton's winter orchestra concert:

Class holiday parties on the last day of school:

play date with the Meyer's:

Baking cookies:

And LOTS more baking ...

traditional Christmas Eve outing with Daddy to the park and for ice cream:

wrapping gifts:

Leaving cookies and eggnog for Santa and carrots for the reindeer:

I will leave Christmas to a separate post, but after Christmas we had a few days at home before we went on our trip to Seattle.

We had a nice walk one day ... it was drizzly, so Riley brought her doll's new umbrella to put her in a carrier.  So cute!

We went for dinner with the Gentry family: