Christmas Festivities

Christmas was approaching way too slowly for Owen, who asked nearly every day of December while looking anxiously at the calendar, "How many more days until Christmas?"  So we made sure to incorporate some fun festivities throughout the month. 

The Holidazzle parade has become an annual tradition since Owen came home.  He just loves watching all the brightly lit floats making their way down Nicollet Mall.  One year he was so upset that the parade was over that he screamed the entire way back to the car!  This year was Cole's first time seeing the parade.  The boys got dressed up in their warm duds to try to keep the chill at bay.

  

We were fortunate enough to have an 'in' with a friendly Minneapolis Police Officer who let us park just steps away from the parade.  Owen even got to sit in the driver seat of the police car.

Unfortunately it was a very cold night and waiting for the parade in the freezing cold while being squished by a large crowd wasn't Cole's idea of fun, so Shane and Cole spent the majority of the parade inside a nearby store.

"You call this fun?!?"

But Owen and I stuck it out.  We are die hard Minnesotans after all!

We watched all the floats slowly go by.  It's the same every year, but that didn't seem to bother Owen.  He still thought it was exciting.  And I'm sure he'll be begging us to go again next year. 

This year Owen had a new request to celebrate the season - "Let's make gingerbread cookies!"  He had made them at school and had had such a blast that he wanted to do it at home.  Well, Mom isn't a fan of gingerbread but the type of cookie didn't matter to him as much as the shape.  So instead of gingerbread, we made sugar cookies.  This was a first experience for both of us!  Owen mixed the batter...

...and cracked the eggs (or attempted to!)

"Whoops!"

He helped cut out the shapes: Christmas Trees, snowflakes, snowmen, and gingerbread men, of course.  And he made sure to taste test the frosting.

"Um, um!"

He even put the sprinkles on the cookies...

The cookies turned out great, thanks to my little helper!

Another first for us this year was the Holiday Lights in the Park at Lake Phalen.  We were all excited to see the park lit up, especially because we got to stay inside the car instead of freezing outside!

Not knowing where exactly we were going, it took a while to find the right entrance.  But we knew we were in the right spot when traffic stopped moving.  Everyone must have had the same idea as us.  We sat for about 1/2 hour in traffic before we finally made it to our destination.  It was fun driving through the park looking at all the light creations.

After driving through the park, we went home to make our very own lights.  Owen just loves doing projects, so I thought it was a great time to introduce him to the Colombian tradition of El Alumbrado (the lighting).  In Colombia, the start of the Christmas season is celebrated by placing candles, lanterns, and lights all over the front of the house and along the sidewalks.  So we made our own makeshift lanterns out of paper bags.  The candles were barely lit before Owen wanted to blow them out.  He must have overheard me saying, "I hope these bags don't catch on fire!" 

It is so fun to celebrate the holiday season through the eyes of our children.  They remind us to take time out of our busy day to enjoy the little things in life.