Preparing for Christmas

As mentioned last post, Brenna helped to set up the Christmas tree last weekend and loved the lights on the tree and has been very good about not touching the ornaments - thank goodness. Here's a picture of her enjoying the tree! This weekend, we had a visit from Santa at our house! Brenna wasn't too sure about him, but we wanted to try to document the occassion and take some pictures. Although she knows the man that was dressed as Santa (helping him out during his busy season), she did not like the strange outfit and long beard. We tried playing with the beard, giving him fives, all kinds of things to help her not be so scared, but in the end, this is what we got - hope she's not permanently traumatized! She also helped decorate the outside of the house this weekend - we put lots of lights on the house and in the bushes and she hung out with us all afternoon outside. Not that she didn't find her own adventures of course (including moving the rocks from one side of the yard to the other, playing with clumps of dirt found in one area of the yard and eating the dirt in one of the planters - yes, I know gross!! That is dirt on her mouth and in her nostril - evidence for the future. But every kid goes through it right?
We also had some visitors this week - our friends Paula and Ryan visited from Philadelphia. We are looking forward to them moving back to Arizona this spring, it was nice to have them around! Brenna also bonded with them and had some playmates other than mom and dad while they were here. They also got to have some practice with a toddler since they are about to have their own little munchkin in February. I tried to post a picture of Brenna with them, but blogger won't let me - I'll try again later.