We had a fantastic weekend before Christmas – making cookies, playing in the snow, visiting Yankee Candle Village, and even making an appearance on the Sunday Morning News. We had plans to make salt dough ornaments, but I think we will tackle the feat this week since Annabelle is officially on Christmas break.
Ailey is wearing Annabelle’s old Santa dress and Annabelle is wearing MY old Christmas dress (which melts my heart).
Ailey looks like she is miserable (which she was at this moment because it was 10 degrees), but she had a lot of fun at Yankee Candle Village sniffing all the yummy candles. Brandon, Annabelle, Ailey and I really enjoyed walking around the enormous store. There is a room where it *snows* every 4 minutes, tons of ornaments and toys, plus a 3 1/2 hour long line to meet Santa.
We went to the Village with the intentions of meeting Mr. Clause, but did not want to stand in line for the entire morning. The girls each picked out a personalized ornament and helped choose a few gifts for family. It was such a fun trip!
We broke out my Grandmother’s KitchenAid and made Brandon’s Aunt Sandy’s famous Christmas cookies Saturday night. They turned out amazing and the girls have been averaging about five a day. According to Annabelle, we are going to have to bake more cookies so that Santa has something to eat Christmas Eve.
While our cookies baked in the oven we wanted to go outside to watch it snow. As Brandon opened the door he paused and called us over quietly…there was a ginormous deer 20 yards away from the back porch. She was so beautiful and absolutely unafraid of us as she walked closer and closer to the porch where we stood. I have always believed deer are a sign of something magical, so you can imagine how incredible this moment was for all of us.
The next morning I tried to take advantage of the new snow as a background for a few photos of Annabelle in her new clothing from Jojo Maman Bebe , but the little GA Peach was freezing. It is not easy to take pictures of kids… and for every one photo that is nice, I have 200 that aren’t so cute. Here’s a cute one…
Sunday night Annabelle went out to eat and to the Nutcracker Ballet with my Mom for her birthday. She was SO stinkin’ cute in her little fur jacket, black turtleneck and plaid skirt. If I had all of my stuff I would be able to put on a similar outfit…
This looks like a great winter weekend!
Also the kitchen cookie pictures = LOVE!