The Opening Weekend

The first weekend in December, did not disappoint...we had a full-of-Christmas-Magic kind of weekend.

Beginning with the first door on the advent calendar.

Saturday morning we were up early for cookie day and the New Berlin Christmas parade starring Mason Worzella himself as a karate chopper. I picked a day Chris would have off, so I could avoid the Cookie Day Meltdown of 2010 (that's what we will now be referring to that as). Naturally, Chris later was scheduled to work. So I was a solo act. It started a little rough, Liam has the worse diaper rash known to mankind right now and is kind of cranky about it. I had little sleep, so did the kids, and had a lot to get prepared in a little bit of time. But after getting a attitude adjuster {Starbucks Vanilla Latte}, I was ready for cookies and the parade!

The starting line-up for cookie day...

Miles

Lily

Liam

Mason

Liam graduated from "Cookie Watcher" to "Official Cookie Tester"...a status only Mason and Lily had achieved thus far.

After Mexican Wedding Cakes (and some naps ~ another good sign), we were off to the parade.

We bring our Christmas flare and we don't care.

This parade does not disappoint and neither did the weather.

Liam received this instrument from someone handing out candy...and instruments. I love these pictures.

Look at those big ole lips! Momma also received an orange instrument and could not stop using it.

Wouldn't be a parade without some Dancing Grannies.

And this guy!

Starbucks was giving out free peppermint hot cocoa, free coffee and free cookies. Jimmy John's was also handing out free subs. Free Starbucks, free food, and tons of Christmas cheer ~ it was Merry!

All the Christmas Crazies!

And finally, Mason appeared....like a flash...I couldn't even get a picture. He's fast.

And just like that he was gone. But I got a picture of Steve's first parade.

This parade is awesome for many reasons, but let's just say they hit a new high this year when the 3 Wise Men walked by with some real camels.

Reindeer! Really, someone pinch us! Another reason I need to move to New Berlin ~ Christmas parade awesomeness!

And of course Santa himself.

So the parade was great and we all agreed next year ~ we are coming with some serious flare. Watch out New Berlin, you ain't seen nothing yet!


Miles and Billie also made the New Berlin paper again - check it out here.

After the parade, it was back to business...baking business. The Nana's were the official ball-rollers, and there may have been at least one twenty inappropriate jokes that Billie and I made about them ball-rolling.

Liam was content just watching in the middle of the kitchen, while we all gave him cookies to taste.

Mason says you can only really taste it, if you close your eyes.

Lily stayed awake until the end (11:00 p.m.) and her favorite part was the "Go Team!' we did at the end, she had us do it three times. And about 30 seconds into our car ride home, I heard her snoring loud in the backseat. It was a cookie day crash.

That night we had a special visitor and Lily awoke with excitement.

I thought her heart skipped a beat when she saw that St. Nick had filled their stockings {she might fall over when Santa comes}

Liam was totally into his stocking too.

Look at him looking for more :)

After opening our stockings we prepared to get our tree!!!

I'm not sure what these two crazies were doing.

Off to get our tree - I love this picture.

Lily decided she wanted to go inside first and look at the store.

These people looked like they were having fun. Lily could have looked at their village for hours.

We finally decided to go pick out our tree. Lily's favorite part is getting a ride.

The process of getting a tree usually goes something like this...Chris forgets his gloves, it's freezing, he stands many trees up and spins them with his bare hands, I look them up and down and contemplate until I finally say "Uh, no...maybe we'll come back to that one"...there is so much to consider: height, bare spots, crookedness, it's a complex process, that usually results in "It's really cold, should we just get this one"

But this year, I think we found the perfect tree.

I had them cut off a sliver of the trunk, I am going to make it into an ornament. I saw the idea here (pinterest, of course - join, will you!). This year, we told Lily she could name the tree (idea from someone I work with). I thought surely she would pick the name "tree". She surprised me when she said Flower. So our tree is named Flower (so cute). On the ornament I am going to put the year and the name, and hopefully have them take turns naming the tree each year. When we went back in to spend our gift card...someone magical had arrived. When we told Lily that someone magical was in the store and asked her to guess who, she proclaimed "Auntie Billie!", it was Santa (a very young Santa). Lily told him she wanted a kitchen...hmm...I'm not sure what she meant by that.

As we were leaving Chris pulled off in his dad's truck with the Christmas tree in the back. Lily said sadly "I'm never going to see flower again". ::smile::

And she picked out this Elf on the Shelf ornament.

When we got home, I turned on the Christmas carols and started putting the lights on the tree, only to realize 3 strands weren't working (so typical, isn't it). Lily made rows with her toys. I went to Target to buy 4 strands of lights and lots of other things I did not need.

When Liam woke up from his nap he was amazed at the tree that stood before him.

Lily loved decorating the tree this year.

Boots preferred to attack ornaments.

Liam used the cover of the ornament bin to surf.

All business with the hooks.

She put all of the ornaments I gave her to hang up in the same spot on the tree, in a big pile of heavy ornaments.

And finally Chris lifted her to put the star on....and then there was a meltdown because she could not get the star on. Daddy had to trim the top and put it on himself.

After it was all said and done, she looked for the pickle. I know that they aren't supposed to look until Christmas Day, but I didn't think she would find it.

She did.

~~~ Christmas Magic ~~~~

Lots more to do on our Christmas Bucket list. This weekend brings breakfast with Santa and possibly a trip to Country Christmas. I should finish my shopping too.

*****

The other day on the radio they were talking about what your favorite Christmas movie says about you. Mine is

{No two ways about it: you're a softy with a tendency to dive head-first into bouts of nostalgia and gloppy sentimentalism. It's okay, we are too. As far as we're concerned, only a heart-deficient tin man would be unfazed by this classic reminder to practice an attitude of gratitude}

Find out what your favorite Christmas movie says about you.

http://shine.yahoo.com/at-home/favorite-christmas-movie-says-222500050.html


*****

If your keeping score...it's been 5 days since the tree went up and it's still standing.