Holiday Fun

The Schlow library in State College had the Polar Express come to town.  The kids got to hear the story and then hopped aboard a little trolley that took them to see Santa for a photo.  

Afterwards there was a free performance of "Where the Wild Things Are" in the library, which was a lot of fun.  When it finished, the kids got to go up and have their programs signed by the actors (Aria is in the pink coat).

We also picked up some of our favorite books at the library.  These two in particular are my personal favorite kids stories.

We also got a propane fireplace, which has really helped keep the house warm. The original wood fireplace had a broken liner, which was going to be fairly expensive to repair, so we decided it would be more convenient and just a little bit more expensive to just install a fireplace insert (as seen below).

Christmas presents have also started arriving in the mail, and the kids intercepted one from Grandma & Grandpa "C" and opened it.  Inside were little remote controlled cars, which they had a blast with.

Little Ryzen is now 6 months old and is starting to cut teeth.  He sits up on his own now and is growing like a weed. He's in the 99th percentile for height and is a sturdy lout.  

Last week we had planned to go to a tree farm and cut down our own Christmas tree, but it was so cold, that we decided to bag that idea.  Instead, we bought a relatively fresh one that was pre-cut.  We got it just in time before a big snow storm hit.  While the storm was just dumping snow, the kids had fun decorating the tree.

Then they started creating Christmas presents for the neighbors and the kids school teachers (i.e., Cookies in a Jar).  

Then the kids went outside and had fun sledding down the hill in our front yard with all the other kids in the neighborhood.  Here's Aria trying to catch snow flakes on her tongue.

 When all was said and done that day, the storm dumped over 6 inches of snow.