Happy Holidays! We’ve been busy enjoying the season but can’t believe Christmas is already here! I can’t wait to experience the excitement with Emerson now that she’s fully aware of how this holiday works! Over the past few weeks she’s come up with several funny requests, but the one that tops them all is her desire to wear her Halloween costume to Christmas Eve mass… hopefully the Christmas outfit I picked out for her is enough to dissuade her.

I’m almost afraid the boxes that Em’s Christmas presents were shipped in have been more fun for her than what I even imagined the toys inside would be. 95% of my shopping this year was happily done online; why leave the house if you don’t have to? We made a few different visits to Santa this year, each time she warmed up to him a little more until finally…..….too friendly?

Items on her wish list from Santa included a ladder, rocks, a car, a tree, a dog kennel and a squirt gun. Hopefully she’s accepting of my choice to partially stray from her list.

While we were at the mall visiting Santa, Emerson stopped to strike a pose next to a Christmas tree decorated with candy.

 We hope the next several days bring as much Christmas joy to you as we’re finding here in the North Pole Iowa!