Early December fun

December started off with many holiday festivities.  

Weekly, we put up more and more lights outside the house, which Ella enjoyed almost more than Auggie. 

Auggie has gotten more and more into arts and crafts. Here is just a small sampling - maybe a week's worth (or less!) - of the varied artwork he brings home from school. Deciding which ones to keep and which ones to recycle can be hard, but we try to remind him that the best part of art is the act of creating it. 

Auggie posing in front of the many Christmas crafts he did with Kristen

This is the first year that Auggie got to see Santa.  We found that Santa was going to be visiting Agnieszka's hometown of Lafayette on a Friday afternoon, so we met up with Babcia in downtown Lafayette to check out the local celebration.  We drank some free hot chocolate and Auggie waved at Santa (who was a little late, after getting stuck in traffic) as he arrived on scene.  There was an opportunity to stand in a very long line to sit on Santa's lap, but fortunately, Auggie decided to pass that one by and we all went to a yummy dinner at Roam, instead.  Auggie's favorite part of this restaurant is sitting near the water tap, so that he can help fill everyone's water glasses.  Ella, as per her usual, went along with all the commotion, cold and change of scenery without almost any complaint.

Important Christmas home preparations started in earnest the next morning:

Another great tradition in our family is a cookie decorating party at the cousin's house.  This was really the first year that Auggie could participate and enjoy the whole event.  Jeff made some impressively flawless cookies for the kids to decorate.  The grownups enjoyed plenty of different adult beverages (from sake to champagne with Creme de Cassis) and the kids entertained themselves the whole time. Ella found the Christmas tree most entertaining.

Just stuck this picture in here, because, oh boy, this child is growing up fast!

Our next holiday tradition is tree and light decorating at Babcia and Dziadek's house.  Everyone had a great time decorating the Christmas tree and the kids even helped Agnieszka hang the Christmas lights off the roof.

I have no idea what is going on here, but it's a rare picture of Jeff.  

A new tradition -hopefully- started this year at our house. We were visited by the Kindness Elves.  They came to ask Auggie's help in doing kind things through the Holiday Season. Flora and Sage showed up every morning with little cards telling Auggie about their adventures helping people and suggesting things he could do to help others himself.  These included being kind to someone who looked lonely at school, making Thank You cards for someone, baking treats for neighbors, etc.  We hope that the elves will choose to visit us again next year.

 A classic, often unmentioned Christmas tradition in many households is the fun kids have with all the boxes that start building up around the house.  Here are the three cousins, designing a car.  Not quite sure why the boys are shirtless...

Finally, one of our favorite new Christmas traditions is visiting Esther and Antonio in their new house in Napa.  Esther spends weeks building a beautiful miniature winter village and Antonio's musician friends come and perform some great music.