Christmas Fun with Grandma

I love December.  Not only is it the Christmas Season, but my mother and I have started a fun tradition of her coming to visit at the first of every December.  I get her play tickets for her Christmas present and she gets me play tickets for my birthday so we go and see two plays while she is here.  It is so much fun.  This year we saw Cinderella and White Christmas.  They were both fantastic.  Cinderella was at a small professional theatre in Maryland, we went during the week and there were lots of extra seats so they moved us down and we literally had the best seats in the house for lowest price.  White Christmas was at the Kennedy Center and it was just fantastic.  We went the last night that my mom was here and it was such a great way to conclude the trip.  The dancing was so amazing.  I just love live performances...they put the best special effects in movies to shame. 

 

The rest of the week with Grandma was spent playing with the girls and doing Christmas prep.  Starting in December we do a fun Christmas activity every day.  Some days are simple things like making crafts, other days we do bigger things.  The girls love it and everyday Natalia asks what our activity is.  They are still young enough that they are happy with anything and if I forget a day...it has happened a couple of times.. they do not mind.  It is so fun to share the Christmas memories with my mom. 

We love to be silly while doing crafts.  Sienna is going through a clingy faze and she thinks she needs to sit on my lap all the time.

Natalia loves crafts and stickers...and she is getting really good at doing things herself.

We went on our shopping trip while my mom was here.  We let the girls walk around Toys R Us and look at toys for as long as they want.  We have no agenda and we tell them we are not buying anything, just looking.  They had fun, but once they were tired they were ready to go.  We also went on a light drive which the girls loved.  Natalia was so excited about every display and Sienna kept saying Tree and Lights as loud as she could. 

This is proof that I am actually pregnant!  I scheduled my ultrasound while mom was here so that she could go with us.  We are having another girl and we could not be any more excited about it.  I think both Hector and I have always felt like we would have an all girl family and this is just confirming that we are correct. 

We also went to this nice Baptist church in our community for a Bethlehem walk.  It was very nice and at the end we found baby Jesus.  The whole basement of the church was set up like Bethlehem of old; they even had live animals.  We spent awhile there and the girls we getting tired by time we left.  Natalia threw a little tantrum as we were leaving (and I was a little frustrated with her), but then we got in the van and in the sweetest voice she says, "Mom, what was your favorite part?  my favorite was seeing baby Jesus.  I love baby Jesus."  How could I stay frustrated?

We tried to get a nice picture on Sunday of the girls in their pretty Christmas dresses, but they were not really cooperating.  They did look very beautiful though.

Monday night we went to the Temple for Family Home Evening.  The girls love the lights and the Nativities.  It was so much less crowded this year so we really got to enjoy the evening.  We also got to see the free concert that night. 

The girls in front of the Nativity

Natalia loved the Camel

We made cookies and just had lots of fun playing.  We stayed busy and the girls had fun with Grandma.  I think they miss her, but they were a little overtired from all the activities.  Natalia would not sleep during nap time while my mom was here, but she has slept like a rock each nap time since she left. 

Sienna comes running as soon as I ask if anyone wants to lick the beaters.  That girl has wasted no time learning about the joys of sugar.