Christmas songs

Caroline has caught on to several Christmas songs. Her favorites are Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. I got her to sing Frosty on camera this morning so that is the latest video above... she mostly repeats the first verse.

Santa Playgroup Party

Our playgroup had a party last weekend with a visit from Santa. He was really good and the kids seemed to be mesmerized by him. He's the only Santa that I've ever seen do magic tricks and sing songs!
Even the kids like Caroline didn't seem terrified of him as usual and she even sat on his lap (of course, there was the promise of a candy cane and bag of goodies, so I'm sure that sealed the deal).

Nativity

It seems like it must be happening with all the kids Caroline's age but she's really into our nativity set this year. Josh's parents have been giving us pieces to this Fontanini set since we've been married and I always thought it was beautiful but I'm really enjoying the practicality of it too. All the pieces are plastic (although they are painted so nicely they look porcelain) so Caroline can play with them, drop them, etc and they don't get hurt. Just thought I'd share the website in case anyone is looking for a kid friendly, but also attractive enough to display, nativity set.

SeaWorld

We went to SeaWorld on Sunday for the first time. The dolphin show was great and they had a Sesame Street kids' area with rides that she rode with Josh.



We also went to a 4-D Elmo movie which she was really excited about and loved wearing the glasses, but we only made it through the first 3 minutes because as soon as Elmo sprayed everyone with a hose and we really felt water drops, she totally freaked out and we had to make a swift exit.


The arctic exhibit was spectacular and they had these white arctic walruses who kind of resemble whales with similar tail fins that we really enjoyed watching. Caroline got a souvenir stuffed white walrus to take home and we ended our day seeing the Clydesdales they have there since one of the major sponsors is Budweiser.

Christmas Party

We went to a family Christmas party for Josh's work on Saturday night which was a lot of fun. There were lots of kids and Caroline had a blast with them. Santa was there! However, Caroline was still unsure about him and rather than sit on his lap, she chose just to go over and say hi with a pat on the leg. Oh well... at least there were no tears... we're making progress.
I thought I'd post the picture that someone took of all three of us too. I feel like we have very few pictures of us together because one of us is always behind the camera.

Thanksgiving Update

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house with both sets of parents coming out to join us. Josh's parents came out the weekend before so we could go to the Colts vs. Chargers game in San Diego (which was exciting because they won it in the last 20 seconds!). Then my parents arrived on Wednesday and everyone was here through Sunday.

Caroline got LOTS of good grandparent time in to say the least. She had them all making all kinds of creations with her play dough, entertained them all day while I was cooking on Thursday and we all went out for a special dinner Friday night up in Laguna Beach (south LA) where this picture was taken at sunset.

A few from the group even made it up to LA for the Notre Dame/SoCal game - but that's really not worth mentioning the way they played. We've been decorating for Christmas the last day or so and Caroline is really excited about her very own little tree in the kitchen next to her table. We'll see Santa on Friday at a Christmas party (he's apparently making an appearance) so hopefully she won't be terrified of him this year if she's able to mingle with him a little bit first. We'll let you know how it goes!