'Tis the Season

Two days after our return from Texas we got snow! And then the temperatures dipped into single digits. I guess that means it's winter now. The kids were kind of excited to see the snow. Good news for us: Owen was happy to be shoveling again!

On December 1, we decorated our tree. That was the agreed-upon deal! It's always fun to look back at the ornaments and remember the people and places associated with them while we are unpacking them. I think we might need to get some little kids' trees next year, because we are getting too many ornaments!

The holiday activities are ramping up too. There was the annual Festival of Trees (before Thanksgiving), which has themed trees for sale.

And I took the kids downtown for Santa's puppy tracker, which includes a map and a scavenger hunt to find at least 20 puppies hiding in downtown shops. Can you find the puppy in this picture?

I think we found 24 puppies and ended up in the toy store where we saw the big man himself, Santa! They're not really into writing him letters or telling him what they want. When asked, Hadley just says, "I'll just see what he brings me."

In other news, O has started indoor soccer, and H has still been enjoying gymnastics. She was invited to the Level One class (pre-competition by invite only), which she did for a couple of months but recently switched back because she enjoyed the less-stringent class more. She's still the shortest and youngest in her class!