It's Christmas Time in the City!

If only you could see the rockin' happy dance I'm doing right now...it's Christmas Break!!! As an educator with thousands of dollars of student loans, this two week break is one of the few things that makes that lingering debt worth it. Be sure to check out this Friday's post where I'll share my top five reasons for loving this time of the school year.

For now however, I'll catch you up on this past weekend's events. A friend of mine told me about a company that provides carriage rides in the city a couple weekends in December. Since taking a carriage ride was on my 30 before 30 list, I jumped at the opportunity.

The weather was AWFUL! We had heavy periods of sleet down pours and the wind would occasionally pick up making the temperature that much colder. We stuck it out anyway. With our bundle of joy all bundled up, we waited our turn.

G was not a fan of the sleet
 

We were also able to grab a quick picture with the Grinch

G loved the horses and she did really well on the ride. It was a short route, but for a total of $4 and a pleasant driver and a comfy seat, we could not complain. We'll definitely be putting this on our list of "must do's" for Christmas seasons to come.

After the ride, we went inside to stroll among the vendors in the holiday market. Since it was early, we treated ourselves to a handmade danish from one of the local shops. We then happened upon Santa Clause! He was much more jolly and of good cheer than the other "Santa's Helper" we met a couple weekends ago. To make the visit even better, he had his sweet wife, Mrs. Clause, with him. It took G a second to warm up to them but within a minute or so they were old friends.

Sunday was pretty uneventful...which was a nice change.

Yesterday was the complete opposite. The last couple of days prior to the holiday break are always crazy. I had most of the prep done for today's party complete...with the exception of a gift for the kids. I decided to make Snow Dough. I found a recipe for it on Pinterest but opted for a no cook recipe instead. The only downside to this particular recipe is that the quantities for the ingredients were off. I ended up doubling (at least) the flour and using only about 3/4 of the amount of hot water. Over all, I was really pleased with how it turned out. I picked up the containers from the Dollar Store, added some glitter to the dough, and, for a total of $3 and some change (because I had all of the ingredients at home), I had 15 tubs of Snow Dough for my first grade darlings.

 

 

We have a lot to do on our list tomorrow. We're taking advantage of being able to take G to the sitter and getting some much needed tasks checked off of our list before my family arrives on Christmas Eve. Fingers crossed that we'll be productive. We also have a few other things going on this week. G and I have a play date with friends on Thursday, as well as a visit with another family that afternoon. Friday will hopefully be simply preparing for our friends that are coming to do a little Christmas celebrating on Saturday.