Storybook Land and Santa

Every year since I can remember I have gone to Storybook Land in my hometown.  Its one of my fondest memories of Christmas.

What is Storybook Land? It's held at the fairgrounds each year, admission is a donation to the food bank.  They fill one of the buildings with trees and lights along a path.  Each side of the path has different displays put up.  Disney characters, nursery rhymes, Santa and his elves.  You name it.  There's also a couple of large train sets running. When you get to the end, you can sit on Santa's lap and tell him what you want for Christmas, and get a candy cane.  I can remember being so excited for this every year.  It wasn't truly Christmas until you went to Storybook Land.  

Since Dawson was born, it's become tradition to take him.  My mom, dad, and sister all go.  This year we were lucky enough to have Joe join us.  He is usually working.  This was also the first year Dawson really understood who Santa is.  He was tickled pink to sit on his lap!  Grandma and him sat on the bench in front of Santa and he rehearsed what he was going to tell Santa while the rest of us stood in line.  It was adorable.  I was really just thrilled he didn't cry! He promptly ate his candy cane as well! 

Do you have any Christmas traditions like this? 

Holiday baking!

My mom bakes a ton of stuff every year for Christmas and has since I can remember.  I can't think of the holidays and not think of my mom in the kitchen.  Toffee, fudge, cookies.. You name it and my mom has probably made it!  I like to bake but I don't do it to the extreme my mom does (no worries, Mom, I still love that you do it!)

 This year I thought I would make sugar cookies with Dawson.  He loves to be in the kitchen with me.  I maybe have lost my mind because he hasn't been the most pleasant to be around this week, but I thought I would give it a shot.

He operated the lever to lower the bowl on my mixer for me and watched me mix up the dough last night.  Although he was convinced it was salt and butter in the bowl.  Silly boy.  He also licked the beater (I know people say not to do this, but it's kind of tradition around here).  I loved that part for the simple fact that I can remember doing it anytime my mom baked and used the mixer.  It's such a happy memory.

He's kind of wild with the stirring and such now, but messes can be cleaned.  I thought he would get a kick out of the shapes and he did! Seems he is a bit impartial to the Christmas tree cookie cutter.  He wanted to use that one the most.  Thankfully they only had to bake for 7 minutes because he was less than patient for that part.  I couldn't transfer those shapes even half as fast as he was cutting them. 

After his nap, we frosted them.  He picked the colors for the frosting (yellow, pink, and green) and ended up painting on paper with the green when we had frosted all the cookies.  The kid is a serious double dipper though so we had 3 colors.. pretty much all swirled together.  As you can see, it was almost impossible to get a picture of him smiling because (and this is a direct quote) "This frosting is a very big job.  It's hard work, mama." Well, never mind the picture then!

Baking with a 2 year old is a good lesson that you pretty much have zero control.  They are no Martha Stewart cookies but Dawson had such a good time.  He nearly fell down when Joe walked in after work because he was in a rush to tell him he baked cookies.  It was heartwarming and just what I needed after a rough start to the week.