Christmas Around Town

A small town Christmas is quaint and magical. The downtown areas light their streets and squares with lights, trees and mailboxes for Santa. They play Christmas music down the streets. And my favorite is to drive through them at night - when there isn't much traffic and just take in the sight of the lights reflecting on the cold ground. It makes the holiday season so exciting. 

Two of our advent days were events around town. Actually, three, but it rained the night of the parade and we stayed home instead.

~Christmas at the Library~

One Saturday morning the library opened its doors for littles. 

Cooper made a Christmas tree puppet and a reindeer.

He colored these pages. (The elf is my favorite.)

And he sat on Santa's lap again. 

He was a little shy this time around.

He also made a riddle book....

What is mommy's favorite Christmas carol? Silent Night.

Why does Santa like to garden? So he can Ho, Ho, Ho!

Who delivers presents to dogs? Santa Paws

How sheep say "Merry Christmas"? Fleece Navidad

...knee slappers, right?

~Christmas at the Park~

This was one very fun night for me and Cooper. Tusc park has rides open in the summer - one of them being a train! A local realty agency hosts something called Christmas at the Park there every year. They opened the rides, provided hot chocolate and snacks, had characters walking around with lollipops. a live nativity with animals (a donkey, goats, and a camel), an ice sculpture artist, and sleigh rides.

Cooper was very excited about this night. He had a lot of fun. As we were standing in line for the train, he was smiling ear to ear, and talking about how excited he was. He looked at me, our eyes met, we smiled, and he proceeded to hug and kiss me without my prompting. His love language had been met big time that night.

Love, Cooper

Did you know that Santa has his own mailbox? 

Did you know that his mailbox is in downtown New Philadelphia, Ohio?

Nestled in a lit up town square is a red mailbox that belong to Santa. 

And today we wrote a letter to Santa and delivered our letter when Andrew got home. I did my best to make complete sentences out of what Cooper wanted to say.  I asked him what he wanted to say to Santa. The first thing out of his mouth: "Does Santa have a Christmas tree?" When I asked him what he wanted for Christmas, "a gift for under my tree". The letter came together and Cooper signed his name. 

That "H" is the E in his name.

We even made our own envelope for it. And I really do mean "we". Cooper insisted on doing it and helping.

And sealed it with some Thomas stickers.

This evening it rained, creating a beautiful backdrop to lights reflected in the town square. We walked up, he put his envelope in the slot, and then he took over the umbrella handling on our way back to the car. 

As we were driving away he told us he wanted his letter back.

Dear Santa, 

When you get my Thomas stamped letter, will you please send it back?

Love, 

Cooper

Days 2&3

Today was one of those days that I am happy to move past and wake up with a fresh start tomorrow.

It was a day when Cooper didn't keep any pants dry.
A day when a minute into our grocery trip to Aldi I put everything back and left because I was being yelled at by a 2 - going on teenage monster boss - was yelling at me.
A day when I look back and realize there wasn't a lot accomplished, but know that I was busy and occupied all day.

Our activity yesterday was a reindeer necklace.

I thought it would be fun to give it a red nose instead of the black one it came with. The necklace is now a bit ghetto because the bell doesn't work and he only has one eye.

Today was a felt Christmas tree.

Finding the number 3

I started out being really creative - thinking I would do a bunch of different shapes.

As time went on with Cooper next to me I realized bigger shapes, less time, less hassle was the way to go. My ornaments started out small and ended up quite large.

This is where we put it. It is currently on the ground after falling.

This kid's personality kills me. 

A Christmas to Remember

I have struggled this Christmas - wanting to "give it all" to Cooper. I went through what we have for him for Christmas and felt kind of weird that it isn't a lot. It really is just a few things. There is a battle in my mind of wanting to be wise with our money, wanting to instill purpose of Christmas other than gifts, and wanting to get Cooper a lot and give him a gift-filled Christmas because it's so fun to watch his eyes light up with excitement with that stuff. 

I was talking about this with my accountability partner the other day and she reminded me that it's not the presents he will remember but the traditions and memories we make. After she said that I reflected back on my childhood. I only remember a few Christmas gifts (especially from when I was younger). But what I do remember are the traditions my family had. The events, the parades, the lights at the park, the home made crafts. I remember and treasure those memories more than anything else from childhood Christmases. 

It doesn't really matter how many gifts Cooper gets this Christmas. It doesn't matter how much (or how little) we spend on him. What matters is teaching him of God's love to us in Jesus. What matters is giving him experiences of traditions that he will remember and carry with him into adulthood. And teaching him to give to others in ways he (and we) are able to.

So this year I am starting a tradition of an advent calendar. It's one filled with activities for us to do each day in December leading up to Christmas. Day 1 was Christmas on an Schrock's Amish Farm. They had different activities set up at the farm. He got to ride the train (the highlight for him) and he got to meet Santa.

This video is so precious to me. We don't have many videos of Cooper - we mostly take photographs. But this video shows so much of his personality - the way he talks, the way he is animated, the way he is curious, the way he is social and excitable. 

On Cooper's list this year:

Thomas trains

An airplane

Smiley faces

What are you doing to make this Christmas season a memorable one?

PS - a shout out to Bronson and Sarah for spending the day with us!

This Man

Last week was Mr. Sale's birthday.

I am so blessed to be this man's wife. 

Blessed that this man is the father of my child.

Blessed that this man prays for us.

Blessed that this man continually walks with Christ.

Blessed that this man comes home and chooses us every night.

Blessed because he gives us laughter.

Blessed because he gives us comfort.

Blessed he works hard every day so that I can stay home with Cooper.

Andrew, my love, thank you for all you do. 

We celebrated with a fun night of friends, food, and fun games.

No Fear

I have been holding out on this post because I had dreams of putting pictures and and video into one big video. But, alas, it is two months later and it's probably not happening.

In September we went to the Swiss Festival. Last year we heard everyone talk about it and were excited to go. We heard about cheese on a stick, doughnuts, rides....who would want to miss it? But when we were supposed to go it rained and was cold. So we partied at our friends house instead.

This year we were able to go, and the weather was quite nice!

Cooper rode his first roller coaster....by himself. The kid has no fear.

Well, maybe a little fear, because the first couple of times around on the track he looked absolutely terrified mixed with being on the verge of puking. I was in the middle of video taping and decided to stop it. After we cheered excitedly every time we went by he eventually warmed up and enjoyed it. So, I turned the camera back on to video him having a good time. Enjoy these videos.

He also rode this car ride.

And the carousel with daddy.

Next to the carousel was a big rocket that he was way to little to ride. Ever since then whenever we talk about him getting bigger or older he asks, "now I can ride the rocket?"

He also ate his first corn dog.

Good family fun.