When going back through the pictures for the other posts, I realized there were some fun activities we did to begin celebrating the holidays. We did all of them in a weeks span and started the season off strong!
To start, we went to Nashville with Tyler for a work conference for a couple days. I started looking around for things to dowhen I saw that Shrek and other Dreamworks characters were at the Opryland Hotel. Nana did some more research for me and found several other things that Opryland was doing for Christmas.
Even though we weren't staying there, we were able to do most everything. One fun event was a music show that Shrek, Po and other characters were in. We had a great seat and the kids just loved the show.
Then they also had Gingy from Shrek helping everyone decorate gingerbread cookies.
Our gingerbread family.....
There was also an old town area, with lots of Christmas related things to do that were popular traditions of say the 40's/50's.
One was a train ride......
Then there was story time with Mrs. Clause...
They also had a post office set up with old memorabilia where the kids could write letters to Santa. Garyn is mailing them in this picture. We got a letter back, too!
Back to the characters, Po from Kung Fu Panda was out for pictures and doing his awesome Kung Fu for everyone to watch. Garyn was a little apprehensive though about getting close....
Had to include this picture. Ansley loved the baby that was staying in the closet of our room! She spent a lot of time playing with her.....
Love the amazement in her face....
Once we came home that Friday, we went down to the Red Bank Parade and happened to see some great friends there to watch with....
Ansley all bundled...
(I must mention that this was about the time that it came impossible to keep her in her stroller.....she climbs out of it constantly unless its moving)
Garyn always has the best view!
That same weekend, we put up our tree and decorations. Then began wrapping presents! Ansley loved the bows and paper. (She also loved climbing on the boxes to get to them easier!)
We borrowed Nana and Poppa's tree because the one we bought on sale last year (in background of next pic) turned out to be quite small. We usually do real trees, but we were worried about Ansley pulling on it and creating more of a mess than they already are (not to mention, her trying to eat it). Instead, we put the smaller tree out in the yard which worked great.
Garyn did a lot of the ornaments this year. I smiled every time I looked at the tree because there were several bare spots and most of the ornaments were at his eye level. I never had the time to fix them; I wasn't sure I wanted to anyway!
Like I said, she loved the boxes!
Well, I think that is finally all the Christmas related events and pictures. Something we didn't get good pictures of was Garyn's preschool Christmas concert. (sadness) It was very cute though and we got a couple of cellphone pictures to remember it by. The kids did go see Santa and both smiled great. Next year will be when Ansley cries I'm sure. It was a great first Christmas for Ansley, though. She, of course, had no clue what was going on expect for loving all the paper and bows people kept giving her! Garyn was very fun to watch since he understood everything more. His anticipation leading up to Christmas was almost more than he could bear. When he started telling me in November that December was coming and it would be Christmas, I knew we were in for it! December 1st was a let down for him since it, in fact, was not Christmas yet. Then he also had to realize when we went Christmas shopping it didn't mean he was getting what he wanted but instead what we were giving others.
Being married and having children definitely makes everything so much more entertaining. I love our little family so much and thank God for them!
