Let the Holidays Begin!

The holidays are in full swing over here- minus the snow. Or cold weather in general. It has been incredibly warm, which probably is not such a good thing and may lead to a tough summer. But for now we will enjoy the beautiful December!

We found out the local high school was putting on a Christmas Kidfest so we loaded up the kids and headed to the school. It was fantastic! I believe this is something they do every year, and I hope it is because I want to make it a fun family tradition.

After teaching high school for so many years I learned something: There are a lot of kids with a lot of problems who do a lot of really bad things. But there are also amazing teenagers out there doing fantastic things and trying to make a positive difference in the world. Yesterday we got to see some of these positive and giving teenagers and it was great to see.

 Please notice Claire's rain boots. They are super cute, and Claire wears them everywhere.

 They had dozens of different crafts- making ornaments, coloring, or decorating cookies. Then they had games as well. We just jumped from one place to the next- it was great.

 That's a little frosting on Audra's cheek:

 Then, last night we decided to head downtown for the Parade of Lights. We had some great friends come with us. The weather was perfect, but we bundled up just in case.

Before we left Audra said: "I don't think I'm going to have fun at the parade. I think it's going to be boring."
I told her we needed to have a positive attitude.

For the record, the girls had a GREAT time! They also started getting ready to go to the parade two hours before we needed to leave.

 Here is Camille bundled up on the train:

 We brought Subway with us for dinner and we ate while we waited for the parade to start.

 Claire was entranced the ENTIRE time. It was great! All the girls were so well behaved- thank goodness!

 I brought some avocado to feed Camille, and I am so glad I did. We didn't get home until 9:50 PM, and were gone for a total of 6 hours with nowhere for me to nurse her the whole time. It's so nice that she can have "real" food for occasions  like this. Camille was great, and she really enjoyed the parade as well. She was giggling and cooing quite a bit during the parade. But, she was definitely tired by the time we got home! Like everyone else, she fell asleep the second her head hit the pillow!

In the end, I am glad we went. It got really crazy after the parade as we had to catch the train to go home- the lines were LONG coming home, and the girls were getting restless. We almost lost Claire once in the crowd which was pretty scary. But, the weather was perfect and I do think it was worth it. However, I agree with Ben that we probably won't go again- at least not while we still need a stroller.