It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

This year I have felt overwhelmed by the thought of Christmas and all that it entails. I have been caught completely unprepared and have, for the first time in my life, felt the stress of the holidays. Thank goodness for weekends! I finally found some free time and some spare energy reserves and have started the whole Christmas process.

Yesterday, I attempted (with the help of my mom and sister) to bake Christmas cookies and share the fun with Lacy. While Ryan had previously committed to helping our friends move to their first home, we girls put our domestic skills to good use. Three packages of sugar cookies, 2 large packages of confectioners sugar, 6 holiday cookie cutters, 10 food coloring packages, thousands of sprinkles and a whole lot of love and goodness were put into our cookies. As you can see it was quite a mess, but a good time nonetheless AND Lacy was able to enjoy her first taste of cookies and icing.


While we waited for cookies to bake and to cool, Mom and G'ma were able to get some of the Christmas wrapping done. Wrapping isn't as easy as it used to be with a 9 month old crawling and exploring, but it is WAY more fun! Lacy enjoyed her first experience helping 'the girls' wrap.

When Ryan returned it was time to get our first Christmas tree as a family. For the last 4 years that Ryan and I have been together we have either been traveling or apart for Christmas and this was the first time that we would be home for the holidays. It was off to our local Christmas tree farm to find the perfect tree for the perfect space in our home. Believe it or not, it was a cold day here in San Fran and hats, gloves, and fuzzy jackets were required. It felt a lot like we were back home in DC. Lacy enjoyed her trip and spent much of the time admiring the balloons and pennant flags flying at the farm. She enjoyed watching the men at the farm use their chainsaws and rope to cut and anchor the tree to our car. Lacy seemed to really enjoy her time there and the cold weather. Perhaps we have a cold weather baby on our hands.

Later on Lacy enjoyed watching Dad put the tree into the stand and string the lights. As soon as it was up it was time to explore this new sparkly monstrosity in our living room. It didn't take her long to realize that she was not 'allowed' to touch the lights or the cord that we have wrapping halfway across our living room. I think we are going to have to find some sort of remedy to that. Lacy even helped us decorate with an ornament or two until she got bored.

Before:


After:

To top off the night, Sausalito hosts a lighted boat parade with a fireworks show as the finale. All of us gathered in our bedroom to watch the fireworks show. Lacy LOVED the fireworks display. She oooed and ahhhed along with the rest of us and got very excited by the grand finale. All in all, it was a perfect way to start of the holiday season for us and I am now gung ho and on a mission to get all my holiday shopping and decorating done by Monday.