It's the most wonderful time - Part II

I had to share the rest of our holiday with y'all so sorry in advance for the photo overload. I'll try to keep it short with bullet points. 

• Visiting Santa at Bass Pro. 

• Colorado Springs Christmas Parade. 

• Our early Christmas celebration before we left for Missouri. Amelia got ALOT of clothes and toys but the biggest hits that day were the play kitchen from her  Nana and Pops and a baby doll with a cradle from us. I had so much fun making her doll quilt that matches her baby quilt. 

• Electric Safari at the Zoo. Amelia got to see Santa again and he gave her a cute stuffed gecko that she still carries around saying "Santie, Santie!" She also really loved the hot chocolate. :) 

• Just had to post some pics of Amelia in her Nativity dress. It was a bit big on her but I couldn't help myself. 

• And finally heading to my parents house. We chose to drive overnight to Missouri and almost got stuck (again) because of crazy wind and snow but we arrived mid-morning and had a wonderful time. 

We took my grandma to the Butterfly Palace in Branson. 

Spent lots of time checking on cattle and playing with puppies. Amelia loved this time with her Papa and Grandma and she really loved blowing kisses to the cows. 

Christmas morning was a lot of fun and the big hit that day was a rocking horse that Amelia got from her Grandma and Papa. 

We ended up driving back home through the night because of a looming snow storm in Colorado. It was rough and we got home at 4 AM and all three of us ended up in our bed to get some sleep.

It was a busy month but SO much fun. We really enjoyed our time with our family and friends!  

It's the most wonderful time - Part I

I love Christmas. I really enjoyed teaching Amelia about Christ's birth and playing with the nativity set with her. She is convinced that her daddy is one of the wise men. I look forward to continuing fun Christmas traditions with her and Ben.

One tradition we started this year was Christmas-palooza. I got this idea from a dear friend as well as some Pinterest surfing. At the beginning of December when we decorated for Christmas, we also gave Amelia her Christmas pj's, a new Elmo Christmas movie and got out any of her Christmas books. It was a fun day of jammies, a big breakfast, and fun. 

It was also a super warm day so Ben took advantage of that and hung up our lights outside while Amelia and I cheered him on and played with sidewalk chalk. 

We ended the day with hot cocoa and the Muppets. 

It was such a nice, relaxing start to our Christmas celebration and we look forward to many more together as a family.

More to come on how we celebrated Christmas in my next post. :)