It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Christmastime is here and for the first year in quite a while I'm actually enjoying the season. We got our tree up early, on Thanksgiving day, we're all decorated outside(pictures to come later), and I have about 90% of my shopping done. For the past few years I haven't really been in the Christmas spirit when the holidays role around but Olivia is making things brighter for me, each and everyday. I'm having so much fun this year, we've actually been talking about Santa and Olivia can recognize him, even though she doesn't understand who he is yet it's still fun to hear her say *Santa*.

The other night I decided to try and get some pictures for our Christmas cards. I thought since there was only 11 days left until Christmas I better get on the ball so they could be mailed in time. Here is a quick overview of our little photo shoot-I got Olivia dressed in her Christmas outfit, we finally got Daddy inside to help, we added a few more ornaments to the tree, fixed the tree skirt, and started shooting. Olivia was really NOT in the mood to have her picture taken here are a few of the first set of photos I got...
I got this...
This......

and this.... No matter what I did or said the little turkey wasn't interested in the camera or smiling. She would run to Daddy, sit in the doorway-nowhere near the tree, play with a toy, or try to read a book. She did however discover the step stool which suddenly made her happy. We decided to put it in front of the tree and see if she would sit on it-BINGO!!! She sat her little behind right on that step stool and smiled her little heart out for almost 2 dozen pictures. I was so excited I finally got a few usable shots to make our cards. Here is the edited photo, I did my best to get the stool out of the shot since it wasn't fancy it was just a regular old stool still with the sticker on it, I didn't think anyone wanted to see it. When I put the photo on the card template it cut the stool right out, thank goodness. I just LOVE that smile!!! We also made a little trip to see Santa the other night. This was an "unofficial" visit, a friend of ours is Santa at Woody's on Monday night. We decided to have dinner there and see how Olivia reacted to Santa. She was a little hesitant at first but after a minute, and a few candy canes later, she was fine. Olivia and Santa...don't let the face fool you she wasn't scared or anything she just wanted to get down because he stopped giving her candy.

Keep checking back for my Christmas light post. Let's just say we're the Griswold's with all of the light and sound we have in our yard, I'm waiting for the FAA to call and ask us to turn the lights off because the planes can't find the airport. I just keep telling myself that Olivia likes it:)