It's the most wonderful time of the year...

The holidays are always busy. We've been having a great time bouncing from one event to the next. Ava and Lia were invited to a gingerbread cookie party at her new friend Ava M.'s house. She met Ava M. through one of her dance classes and it turns out that Ava M. will be in her class at school.

Yes, Ava will be starting preschool in January. She has been on the waiting list for quite a while and we are so happy that she was able to get in to the school so that she can go to pre-kindergarten next year.

But I digress, the party was fun. Lots of girls playing, squealing, and eating cookies.

Do you see the awesome storage system in the background?

I had to ask where it came from and of course the answer was IKEA!

Another event was our church's annual Christmas in the Country. We have church out at the fair grounds and then everyone is invited to stay for lunch and fun activities. They had a bounce house, a big inflatable slide, and a hay ride. We bundled up. I think Ava had the most fun going down the slide with Ethan.

So glad Gramma was there to push Lia around in the stroller - where she eventually fell asleep.

I lost count of how many times she went up and down the slide.

Ethan was such a good sport

Hay ride! But we forgot to sing Christmas carols...

We also made it out to the annual Christmas parade. The town center was packed, but we got there early enough to get a good seat for the parade. It sprinkled a couple of times and we got nervous that we would have to walk back to our cars in the rain, but luckily it just passed over us and we enjoyed the evening.

Mimi came over one night after we set up our (second) Christmas tree. Here she is posing with the girls. Forgot to fix the red-eye on this one...

We broke down and got a real tree. We are starting to acquire quite a few ornaments and having this more "casual" tree in our family room really helps add to the Christmas cheer. Of course I especially love the smell of the fresh tree every time I walk in the room.

Here we are at Anthony's work Christmas party

with our good friends Andy and Cindy

Like I said, we are busy busy busy, but we're loving every minute of the Christmas season.