Midwest Christmas Festivities.

The last 2 weekends we have enjoyed doing a lot of Christmasy things around here. Last weekend we had our ward Christmas party and headed down to Kansas City the next day. We had a great time visiting with my aunt and uncle. They took us to a delicious BBQ joint that we'd never tried before. My uncle also treated us to a trip to the "Penguin house". This place has TONS of inflatable penguins all over the front and side yards.

That night we went to "The Plaza", a fancy schmancy outdoor shopping area with lots of pretty Christmas lights. I didn't take any pictures. They just got an H&M! Now I only have to drive 3 hours instead of 6. We rocked out to Christmas music the whole way to and from KC.
This week I made and gave out our Christmas treats. I also finally did Christmas cards! I'm feeling pretty on-the-ball.

We decided to celebrate our own little family Christmas this weekend before we visit extended family. We've never done that before. Usually, we buy presents in front of the other person and put them to use right away--no wrapping paper, stockings, etc. This year I still picked most of the things I got (I don't like for other people to choose my clothes), but Craig wrapped them and we opened them together.

As part of our festivities we went to the gardens to see their annual Christmas display:
We had Christmas tree waffles for dinner on "Christmas Eve":

We went and picked out this year's ornament for Charlotte (we're doing the 1 special ornament a year per child thing), representing Charlotte's first word that wasn't babbling:

Yesterday we opened our presents from each other and the ones that my parents sent us. Craig got snazzy new running shoes, ESPN's 30 for 30 vol. 1, and another feel-good-sports movie.

Charlotte got blocks, a cute little shopping cart and lots of wooden food to fill it with, some puppets, dress-up jewelry, cars, and a couple pairs of shoes. Not to mention, I buy her some article of clothing almost every time I go to the store...
I got an awesome Cannon video camera to capture all of the cute things Charlotte says and does. I'm excited to figure it all out. I also got a coat, sweaters, and other clothes.

We ended the night by wandering around Omaha with friends to look at Christmas lights. The highlight was a house that had their lights synched up to Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards of Winter". Totally seizure-inducing. Totally awesome.