The Raleigh Christmas Parade was the weekend before Thanksgiving this year (a bit too early if you ask me) but because the NCSU football game was away that weekend, we were able to go to the parade. Lilly seemed unimpressed and eventually fell asleep on me. Brayden was mesermized. Of course, we got there pretty early and claimed some good spots, but because everyone crowded in once the parade started, we ended up each holding a kid the entire time. It was bitter cold that morning and the wind was blowing pretty hard between the buildings so we had to stay really bundled up.
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| Waiting for the parade to srart |
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| Lilly was really not sure what the big fuss was about |
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| Claiming our spot along Fayetteville St in downtown Raleigh |
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| Finally...Santa Clause! Surprisingly, Santa was NOT the end of the parade. We packed up and started leaving thinking that the parade was over, but as we started to walk away, here came a bunch more groups, bands, and floats. We decided that we were all too cold and hungry to stay any longer so we went ahead and left. |
The weekend after Thanksgiving, we decorated the house (which sadly I didn't get any photos of). Brayden was really excited this year by all of the lights on our house
and everyone else's in the neighborhood. Some people in our
neighborhood go ALL OUT with the decorations so it was fun driving
around every evening on the way home from daycare see all of the
different lights. I would try to go a different way each day to mix
things up a bit. Of course, there were favorite houses (like Uncle
Corey and Aunt Jill's) that we drove by more often than others :)
Brayden was also super excited about decorating the tree this year. We let him stay up late to help and he did a great job. Of course, all of the decorations were at 4 feet and below and were mainly clumped on a few branches, but he didn't mind when I went behind him and scattered things around a bit more :) He was also VERY excited to help Daddy put the star on top of the tree. When they got up on the step stool and started leaning over to put the star on, Brayden freaked out and wanted to get down.
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| We let Brayden stay up later than normal to help decorate the tree. |
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| Putting the star on top. |
The Toomey's from our Small Group at church hosted the 3rd annual Gingerbread House decorating party. We let the 3 boys (who are all 3.5-5ish) decorate a Gingerbread House and the girls (all aged around 1) decorated cookies. Everyone had a great time and did very good work. It has been fun watching the boys interest and patience decorating change over the years. Brayden was VERY into decorating this year and we even had to get out more stuff at home to "finish" his house! The only part that we helped Brayden with was outlining the windows/doors. He did everything else all by himself!
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| I forgot to take an old shirt for Lilly so I just stripped her down! |
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| Brian and Grace decorating their house/cookies! |
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| Brayden getting started on his house |
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| Lilly seemed to enjoy eating the icing more than decorating... |
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| Another spoonful of icing. Yummy!! |
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| Hi Maddie! |
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| Brayden's "unfinished" house. The animal crackers on the side are deer at Grammy and Paw's house. |
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| And the round balls in the "grass" are deer food :) |
