Team Smith

In an effort to get these fun pics up sooner, I will limit my rambling and observations so as to provide brief overviews of holiday cheer :-) Free sleigh rides on Spring Road! Santa visits, hot chocolate and treats and ice sculptures were also advertised. Santa eventually gained her trust and Cass rewarded us with one smile sitting next to Santa. Wonderful holiday party at Adriana's house! I met her and her twins over the summer and persuaded them to come over to our daycare center :-) Hostess extraordinaire provided the most amazing eggplant cheese and olive dip! So yummy.

How I love some Christmastime! Technically we are in Advent and Christmas starts in a couple of weeks on Christmas Day and lasts 4-6 weeks till Epiphany. We have never really paid that much attention to the Episcopal schedule the way we are this year because Matt has been planning the music for church. Learning so much! Here is Day 1 in my 12 part series of holiday cheer and activities. Elmhurst does this tree lighting event in Wilder Park, the park across the street from us. We sure did enjoy walking to the trees and were grateful to not have to fight for parking! This was a couple of weeks ago. Anyone can purchase a tree and decorate. Most proceeds go to charity. They had real reindeer and Cassidy just about lost her mind; her little body wriggling with anticipation as we flew through a short line to get up close and personal. We learned these reindeer are very well taken care of on a huge piece of land/reserve northwest of here. Did you know they are excellent swimmer...