Christmas, Take Three: The Year It All Came Together - Part 2

As promised on Monday, here's Part 2 of the Best Christmas Ever (so far).

10. LG helped pick out the Christmas tree. I actually took her on a practice run to the tree farm with her cousin and Hollie's Dad a week earlier than when we chose our tree. This primarily served as an opportunity to hide behind various Norway Spruce and shout at things. But it was gratifying nonetheless that she had a good time, and she did eventually give her approval to the tree you see below.

Mostly, she ran around and shouted at goats, but hey, what more do you want?

11. Unlike last year, she took an active interest in decorating the tree. Look, I fully recognize that I'm lucky. LG, while as clumsy as you'd expect from a being composed of equal parts Hollie and Matt, is a relatively careful and conscientious kid. She doesn't want to break things, and rarely goes out of her way to do so. Even so, she really wanted to help decorate the tree and was extra careful when doing so, without much prompting from us. Granted, it helps that we laid out all the kid-appropriate ornaments for her to choose from, but it still makes me proud that she was so careful.

It doesn't hurt that I have a giant box of tin ornaments like the one in the lower left picture.

12. Cookies fix everything. By this point in our excursion to see Santa and Christmas lights at the farm, LG's patience for the entire endeavor was wearing thin. Solution? Cookie. As I've stated before, I am an excellent father.

The only appropriate caption is "Om nom nom."

13. LG loves her cousins, second cousins and rabbits. We went through the phase when she loved everyone. We went through the phase when she was scared of everyone. We're currently in the phase when she's shy for 5 minutes, then she won't stop climbing on you. This was especially true of her cousin in the upper left and my cousin in the upper right. But it didn't take long before they were her favorite people in the room on Christmas Eve. 

Until the bunny came out. At that point, no one mattered.

And of course she has no problem stealing whatever Alissa is holding in the lower right.

14. Trains are wonderful things. When I was young, one of the highlights of our visit to my Uncle Charles & Aunt Nancy's house was Charles' massive train layout. Multi-tiered, intersecting tracks with tunnels and at least one train that blew smoke: it was amazing. And trains are at least as entertaining to LG. It doesn't even need to be that complicated. If it goes round and round and makes a whistling sound, it's okay by her.

Occasionally, you may need to provide your own whistle. This is fine, too.

15. Christmas Day was by turns wonderful and exhausting. I wish I could say that the exhausting portion of the morning resulted in a longer nap in the car on our annual 2.5 hour trip back to New Jersey. Alas, we only got 45 minutes of sleeping toddler. But still, look at how much fun she's having!

She looks weirdly surprised to be wearing an apron. 

16. Sometimes, Christmas lasts 'til New Years Eve. And sometimes, your friends dress your daughter like a princess. They've been threatening it since LG's birth, but our friends Kristen and Don doubled down on the frilly and glittery when they came to visit for our annual New Year's outing. I'd be more upset at LG's girlification if the things didn't make her so stinking happy.

Also, wand, sword, what's the difference? Either way, someone's going to get smacked in the head.

So yeah, Christmas was fun. I'm sure I've left out some ridiculously cute or amusing story, but in a season so full of fun and excitement, it's hard not to. And I've got to save something for next year, although I expect that blog post to be full of pictures of LG covering G2 in wrapping paper.

 BONUS PICTURE.

Nope, still not shiny enough.