Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Last weekend we went to Vernal for William's baptism. To be honest I think that was the first baptism I've been to since my little brother's which was almost 6 years ago! We were glad we got to be there to witness such a special event for William. Also while we were there we all went up the mountain to get Christmas trees. This year was much easier with just enough snow the pull Mia along in a sled, but still making it easy to get around. We all found our trees within 45 minutes, which I would call a record! 

(I didn't bring my camera on this trip so you get lovely pictures from Eric's phone)

Mia kept trying to get off the sled as we were pulling it so she could play in the snow so we  would keep pilling snow up on the sled for her to play with (basically eat, but she did get William good a few times with an unexpected snow ball :)

My sister always makes fun of our "Charlie Brown" christmas tree every year, but I honestly love nothing more then the experience of a family outing up the mountain to find "the one" tree; although imperfect, to take home and make beautiful with lights and ornaments. It has been a great family tradition for both of us growing up and one we hope to continue! Fortunately for us since coming home and putting the tree up, Mia has shown zero interest in it so that has been nice not having keep an eye on her with that.  

Another thing we are trying this year somewhat of a gift advent for Mia. I've seen on pinterest where they wrap 25 Christmas books that the kids get to unwrap one each day to count down to Christmas. I've also seen the same idea with little gifts each day. Both sounded rather pricey and taxing trying to come up with 25 things to unwrap each day so we decided to do the German tradition way and have a little gift for Mia to unwrap on the 4 Sunday's before Christmas. I figured this would also help Mia practice her unwrapping skills, which after seeing them last Sunday they could definitely use some work!

So after putting up the Christmas tree and watching the Christmas devotional last Sunday we let Mia unwrap the first gift. The was actually not a small gift and a little bit of a splurge (with a gift card though so it actually didn't cost me anything) but we got Mia the Fisher Price Nativity set. My mom had something like this when we were young and we loved playing with it so I wanted one for my kids. The set was $38 at amazon.

 So far it has been a huge hit with Mia! She loves pressing the angel on top that plays a Christmas song and playing with all the people. I love watching her starting to pretend play! It is one of the cutest things to watch

Here a some quick updates on Mia:

She LOVES stickers. They are all over our house, one the walls, the furniture, our clothes and in Mia's hair. I just have to giggle when I look in the mirror and see them all over the back of my shirt. She loves to color and will color at Eric's desk when he is gone for 30 minutes at a time.

The excitement of feeding herself has faded, but she has become very interested in trying to dress herself. I found her getting into a basket of laundry full of clothes trying to put our socks on her feet.

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