Mom: Christmas Traditions - Part 1

I love Christmas!  It is one of my favorite times of year.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, we went ahead and put up all of our decorations and decorated our Christmas tree.

Going for it!

Playing around - in one of my many Christmas outfits!

I blogged last year about how I could not wait to start sharing our Christmas traditions with Susan.  Well we have already started, plus we have added some meaningful new traditions as well!  The town we live in - Hillsborough - is such a neat little town.  We found it by accident!  I missed the swearing in for the Durham County bar and needed to be sworn in so I decided to attend the swearing in at the Orange County Bar.  And the county seat for Orange County is Hillsborough, not Chapel Hill.  Well, we fell in love with Hillsborough that day and managed to find our house in a great neighborhood a few months later.  Now that we have Susan, we are getting to do so much and appreciate our little town so much more.

Last Friday was the Town Christmas Tree Lighting.  Festivities were set to begin at 6:30.  We weren't sure if that meant the tree would light up then or not.  So we ate a quick (and early) dinner downtown and then walked over to the Christmas tree at 6:30.  There was a large crowd already gathered and we could hear carolers singing.  After listening to a few more carols, the lead caroler read The Little Fir Tree which was such a sweet story!  After a few more carols, all the children were invited to come forward and take a seat.  Then Mrs. Claus came out and read Twas the Night Before Christmas!  Then everyone joined in to sing Joy to the World before the Mayor and children began the official tree lighting countdown.  Susan was very interested and thankfully it was not that cold.  When the tree lit up, it was really beautiful.  Chris and I had a lot of fun and Susan appeared to enjoy herself as well.  We decided it is definitely a Christmas tradition we want to continue.

Excited to watch the Christmas Tree Lighting!

Listening to Mrs. Claus

Watching the carolers

It is so big and bright!

There is a lot going on right now!  Distractions everywhere!

 

 

   

The video below shows the full lighting - but of course I completely missed both the actual lighting and Susan's reaction.  Oh well!  There is always next year!

We didn't get to make it to the Hillsborough Parade this year.  That is okay.  The parade starts at 10 a.m. which is during her morning nap.  So we will make it next year, when she is down to one afternoon nap a day.  But on Sunday we did experience a few more new and fun Christmas traditions.

First we stopped by the Daniel Boone Arts and Craft Fair.  We wanted to see the crafts but we mostly wanted to stop by and see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  They were rumored to make an appearance.  We knew this would help us avoid the mall and would support our town.  So we stopped by around 12:30 p.m. to meet Santa.  And Susan was a star!  She didn't cry or even whimper.  She just looked at him intently, clearly indicating all the wonderful things she wanted for Christmas.  And by her behavior, he could tell she had been a really good girl this year.  It was so sweet!

Who are you?  Oh right - your Santa Claus!  Well, I want...

Such a happy girl!  I love Santa!

Instead of my two front teeth, could I just have a break from teething?  Wait, that is what my mom wants.  I want a corn popper, blocks, a ring stacker...

Too cute for words!

Whoa - Mrs. Claus too!

 You would think the fun might have stopped there but you would be wrong.  The town also holds an annual Candlelight Home Tour for all of the historic homes.  Now, we didn't attend the tour this year (it may be a few more years for that) but as part of the tour festivities, there are horse drawn carriage rides downtown!  After meeting Santa, we still had about 45 minutes until Susan's next nap so we decided to go for it.  And it was so worth it.  She had a great time and we had a lot of fun too!

On the carriage

Looking out at my adoring fans!

So inquisitive

Oh Hey Daddy

Best afternoon ever

So much fun!

 It really was a great weekend.  We started the Christmas season off with some wonderful new traditions.  Next weekend we will share with Susan one of my favorite traditions - decorating a gingerbread house!