Christmas Preparations...

Saturday was really the beginning of our Christmas preparations. We started the day at Cricket Academy for Chinese class. As you can see, Kate made a Duck Hat and felt very fashion forward while wearing it. (Yazi is the word for duck in Chinese--Yah zah). When we got ready to make some Christmas candy, she decided to use her hat as a chef's toque. She helped place the chocolate in a checkerboard pattern and repeatedly asked to "taste" the chocolate...she'd say "just one."




Our next adventure was out to a local Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. We decided not to cut our own tree down since it was pretty snowy, so we chose from the fresh cut trees. Kate loved playing in the snow, but Sam was reluctant to go too far at first.



Kate found a branch and begged to carry it around as we looked for our tree. She took it home, but it was forgotten once we got the tree up. They were both amazed to wake up from their naps and find the tree in the living room.



We finished the day taking walk through a local neighborhood known as "Candy Cane Lane." The residents decorate their homes and yards with lights and it's quite a production. It's become a fundraiser for the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer and is really fun. We went with my brother and his family. Kate had a ball bounding the through the snow with her cousins. It was all fun & games until we saw the dreaded...scary...hideous...annoying Santa Clause. Kate loudly announced, "I NO like Santa" and demanded to be carried. Even after we had left him blocks behind us, she was giving us a litany of reasons why Santa was bad.

I don't think there will be any "Ho-Ho-Ho-Sit-on-Santa's-Lap-Photos" this year...