Don't you just love the sights and sounds of Christmas!! I do. Especially when I'm spending time with my two beautiful granddaughters. We had them for quite a few hours on Sunday and did some fun things together. We made a quick trip first of all to visit Santa at The Rusty Bucket. Reagan loves to visit Santa and couldn't wait to share her wish list with him. She was so sweet with Santa and hugged him and even took him a special ornament gift. Raleigh, on the other hand, doesn't exactly like to visit Santa. We only have one picture of her with Santa and that was when she was a baby and didn't know any better. While her big sister visited with Santa, Raleigh hid in a faraway corner cowering in fear that Santa might actually try and find her. She was so funny and so afraid. Santa got out of his chair at one point to just peek around the corner at Raleigh and she started crying uncontrollably. At that point we decided it was best to have her leave the store and get her calmed down. We don't want the little thing to have Santa nightmares. She said later on that maybe when she was five she would visit Santa. Then she said maybe when she was six. We'll just see.
After we got home we made some fun "cookies". The girls love doing things with sprinkles so we rolled out some crescent roll dough and each girl decorated their half of the dough. I think they like the decorating part more than anything and I thought this "cookie" project would give them lots of creative fun with many different sprinkles. Once they finished decorating the dough, I rolled it up and we cut it into slices like pinwheels. Once done, I made a confectioner's sugar icing and gave each a little brushing. The girls loved their new cookies, with Reagan saying it was the best she had ever had. It doesn't take much to make little ones happy! Something as simple as sprinkles and dough and they've made something fun with their own hands.
After a quick dinner, we headed to Meadow to visit the light show. It was a new adventure for all of us. The lights were beautiful which we viewed from a train that took us all through the park. The girls had a great time and didn't even complain about being cold once even though my toes were frozen! After we finished the train ride, Reagan wanted to visit the Santa that was there. She was a little confused about how there could be so many Santas at so many different places. I explained that there was only one Santa but he needed many Santa helpers to keep up with all the requests children had all over the world. She seemed satisfied with that answer. One final stop for the girls, the carousel.
Finally, it was time to go home. I think the girls were thoroughly tired but sang Christmas songs all the way home. Reagan said she had the best day ever. How wonderful that we were able to do such simple things and make them both so happy. What a special day for us!