It was another great Christmas holiday season filled with family, laughter, love, and of course travel. But, before we departed on our annual Iowa trek we had some holiday business to take care of in Minneapolis. This included getting and trimming a tree, checking out the Holidazzle parade, a visit to Santa Land at Macy's, cookie baking at the Karlgaard's, and of course, a visit from St. Nick.
The Christmas season at our house starts with a trip with friends to pick out the perfect tree. We made the pilgrimage this year with our good friends Phil and Kelsey.
Apparently her parents are not the only people Emma has wrapped around her finger--she adores Phil and Kelsey.
Emma really wanted to help...
...when she wasn't busy sipping her hot chocolate!
Once we got home it was time to get the tree up and sit for some stories and more hot chocolate. :)
Cheers!
This was the first year Emma could really "help" us trim the tree. She did great! As you can see the tree was a little bottom heavy with ornaments, and it's never looked more beautiful.
The tree is not complete without a star, albeit crooked :)
Unfortunately, 2013 was the last year for the downtown Holidazzle parade so despite the cold we ventured out to take in all the lights and floats. Emma, of course, wanted to be front and center.
One of our great holiday traditions is a visit to Dan, Sarah, and John Karlgaard's for an annual cookie baking party. This usually produces an enormous sugar high and enough cookies to feed an army. Emma is a professional cookie froster and was showing the boys how it is done.
According to Emma, the key to frosting cookies is equal parts putting frosting on the cookies and in your mouth. After all, it is important to have a clean knife!
Santa Land did not disappoint. Emma was enthralled with all the lights and elves. She had lots of questions. :)
Emma was very excited to see Santa and show him her pink heart necklace. She even asked him if he wanted to go to lunch with us!
And finally, it was time for the big show. Emma was very excited for Santa's visit. We put out a note and some cookies that she had frosted and picked out especially for him. There wasn't much to Emma's Christmas list. The only thing she asked for was "lookers," which through a series of questions and deductions we figured out that "lookers" were actually suckers.
Emma was more excited about her "lookers" than anything else!
Story time with one of her new books and, of course, a purple "looker."
It was a wonderful holiday season in Minneapolis but it was just getting started. The next day we were off to Iowa.
Merry Christmas from Minneapolis,
Jason, Melissa, and Emma
