Christmas was coming!

We enjoyed some classic Christmas activities in the week leading up to the big day!

On the 17th I took David and Mary out of school so we could go downtown to see the Cincinnati Ballet's Nutcracker at the Aronoff Center. (We loved their production of Alice in Wonderland last February.)  It was really neat to see a professional production!

Pre-show selfie!

David and Mary both know the ballet so well that we could have interesting discussions about the choices they made in this production. Since Mary herself dances, she had a deep appreciation for the number of consecutive turns the Sugarplum Fairy performed...Mary got to twenty or so before she lost count! It was a great day. I love hanging out with these kids!


Look! Christmas cookies!

I think I deserve a gold star for this.

 How do I survive the ordeal that is Christmas sugar cookies?

First, I don't do all the steps myself. (This year I outsourced the dough, the frosting, and the decorating to Greg. All I had to do was maintain a cheerful disposition during the rolling, cutting, and baking.)

Second, and most important, we do not plan to share these cookies with anyone no matter what. This liberation is the key to fun. It doesn't matter if half the gingerbread men have no heads, if one kid wants to use the Easter cookie cutters too, if the cookies are burnt and/or taste like cardboard, if the icing is the wrong consistency, or if your toddler sneezes into the dough 5 times. Who cares!!! (Regarding those sneezes...Sara had her own ball of dough that was quarantined. We baked her cookies separate with the intention to throw them out. But Greg didn't get the memo and ate a few snot cookies. Oops! He's still alive though.)

A couple of evenings before Christmas we drove through the lights at Sharon Woods. Our kids LOVE this. They were so excited.

This little girl loved the Christmas lights!

I think their enjoyment has less to do with the lights and more to do with the fact that we let them unbuckle. Sara gets to sit on my lap up front, and David and Mary climb up to poke their heads out of the opened sun roof. (I will say that Sara truly enjoyed the lights--she's at the age when they're simply magical.)

I'm not sure that Star Wars is a classic Christmas tradition, but it sure was a part of the season this year!

Greg took David on opening day, and then David took me the next day. We loved it! Hooray! (There was a fair amount of anxiety in our household about the possibility of being seriously disappointed. No disappointment here! Phew.)

Mary caught the Star Wars fever, and we've spent the break watching the original trilogy with her. She's still deciding if she wants to see The Force Awakens, but she has declared that she really likes Chewie, Leia, and R2-D2.

We have also spent waaaaaay too much time watching, re-watching, and quoting the Star Wars Bad Lip Reading trilogy (1, 2, and 3). Waaaaaay too much time...