Christmas Festivities

Saturday was another rainy day in Charlotte.  We did some festive Christmas things instead of moping around in the house.  We mailed our Christmas cards, finally!  Then we went out to eat at 7th Street Market.  The Christmas decorations were beautiful!  Next, we walked over to Imaginon for a marathon reading of A Christmas Carol complete with hot cider and gingerbread cookies.  We only lasted about thirty minutes of the reading.  Next, Harper and I went out to our favorite nail place in Uptown to get pedicures while Alex and Ethan hung out at the condo.  

      

7th Street Market

    

    

    

A Christmas Carol 

     

    

    

We had to get cookies, of course!

    

My pedi pal!

Rice Cereal

Ethan has shown a lot of interest in the foods we eat.  He will watch you put each bite into your mouth and follow your cup as you bring it up to drink.  We introduced rice cereal for Harper at 5.5 months and were going to wait for 5 months for Ethan, but given his interest, we decided to give it a go a couple weeks early.  I used my special first bag of colostrum to make the cereal.  Turns out, he wasn't ready.  He looked happy with the first couple bites, then wouldn't swallow anything else.  Shame on me for wasting my whole bag of special, precious, antibody-rich milk!  We may try again at 5 months.

   

My liquid gold!

      

It looked promising at first.

     

     

    

Not so sure about it anymore...

    

Ethan's First Snow

We didn't get the inches and inches of snow that was forecasted, but we did get snow!!  We had a lazy day full of Christmas tunes, Christmas cookies, and snowmen.  

   

Excited for the snow!

     

    

     

    

     

Regan Gingerbread Party

We went to Tessie and Katherine's annual Regan Gingerbread Party last night.  It was the first year Lisa wasn't there!  Alex attempted to make the London Tower Bridge, but picked up a couple of toddler assistants along the way and ended up making a beautiful star bridge instead.  The competition was fierce, as usual, and Alex had to go up against a Narnia rendition, a fireplace with actual fire, and a lighthouse, just to name a few!  We love our Christmas traditions!

    

Tessie and Ethan

   

Gingerbreading 

    

     

 Samantha met Ethan!

   

Katherine and Little Man

    

     

     

The finished products!

   

   

     

     

   

The closet from Narnia!

    

Gigi and Poppy at Christkindlmarkt

Gigi and Poppy came for a quick visit this weekend.  They had planned to stay both days in Charlotte, but the nine inches of forecasted snow shortened the trip.  Of course, it only ended up snowing just over an inch here, but better safe than sorry!  We took them to Charlotte's Christkindlmarkt.  We had mulled wine, pretzels, bratwurst and sauerkraut.  It was a quick trip, but we had a lot of fun!

    

Gigi and Poppy

    

  

Christkindlmarkt 

    

   

    

   

We always have our snacks in the heated tent.

    

    

   

Harper made an ornament. 

    

     

Snuggles

   

Harper read a lot of stories with her grandparents! 

Holiday on Ice

We took Harper ice skating last night at the Holiday on Ice rink in Uptown.  She was not a fan.  She made it around the rink once in Alex's arms and decided she was done.  Good thing the rink was close to the Uptown Amelie's so we could get a post-skate snack.

  

Holiday on Ice

  

  

  

I had high hopes that she would like it.

  

   

Not a fan!

   

  

  

   

  

Harper got a balloon unicorn.  It was the best part of her night!

  

   

We love Amelie's treats!