Celebrating Christmas in Maryland 2012!

So it's March 2013...and guess who's still talking about the end of 2012...that's right...THIS GUY!

What a busy Christmas season it was both at home in Maryland and up north in Connecticut with our families!

We'll start as it started in Maryland...we went out to the Christmas Tree lot as was customary to pick out our Christmas tree. After going to the actual Christmas tree place where you cut your own tree to get Gramma Mindy's, I saw just how different living in a city was for stuff like this...

We went to the same lot that we went to last year, where they had a whole bunch of tress cut down for you to look through and choose the one you like.

We marched through the stacks of trees, and I spend a fair amount of time trying to find the best tree....not only in general, but one that would be the best match for us.

Mom followed closely behind, making note of the trees that I thought might be possible contenders...she looks like she was having fun, right?

There are so many factors involved in picking a good tree. There's the size, the shape, the overall spirit of the tree.

I finally found one that was a little different than the type of tree we usually get (the needles looked a little different) but it really spoke to me. I did some careful, scientific measuring, and we set about getting the tree back home....

Once back home, I took on the task of untangling the lights. Even though Dad swears he packed them neatly (I have no reason to doubt him) they magically seem to get all tangled up again.

We also did a few tests to see if the lights were working, and if the colors were how we expected them to look...everything looked great, so Mom and I started stringing the lights on the tree.

We did a pretty good job getting all the lights put up in a way that enhanced the natural beauty of the tree we had gotten...

After putting some ornaments on, Dad helped me put the star on top of the tree. Looks like we were all ready for Christmas!

Gramma Debbie got me an advent calendar to help us count down the days until Christmas. You add a little cotton ball on each day leading up to Christmas, and when the snowman is all full, and looking all puffy and cute, Christmas is here! (I attached them all, except for the few that I missed when I went up to Connecticut early.

Gramma Debbie also got us some jelly decorations and snowman stickers to put up....since no one would be able to see them or appreciate them on our windows (we live on the second floor) we put them up on the glass doors of our book/DVD shelves.

I was pretty proud of how they looked after we were done! It really made the place look more festive...

At school, the holidays (and winter celebration in general) was in full effect! All of our bulletin boards were really well-decorated...

We made a lot of projects throughout the course of the holidays, and we got to both display them in class, and take them home when we were done!

The holidays, as always, mean a big party at school, and that means we had another song/dance/theatrical experience that was choreographed by our teachers...we sang some songs, did a dance, and had some lines in our story about animals. We all dressed up as animals (I decided against the facepaint, but I wore my chipmunk ears) and even though I don't love doing these shows (Unless I choreograph, and perform them on my own at my leisure) I still made it through. :-) I think we did a good job!

We finished the party with dinner and snacks, and when it was almost time to leave, we had a gift exchange....It was so much fun (and a bit chaotic!) having everyone in the circle opening their gifts!

I miss Christmas. :-(