Get ready for a long post! Catching up on our activities this month...
We needed to get out of the house a bit, so we did a one night get away to New Hampshire earlier in the month. New Hampshire is pretty much the only state we can visit without having to quarantine for two weeks and we finally have Kenzie accepting of wearing a mask in public! She just has trouble keeping it up. They tend to slide down her nose!
We had a fun dinner at Bahama Breeze.
And visited the outlets for some Christmas shopping and Lindt Advent Calendars! While visiting the Disney Store, Kenzie expressed interest in the stuffed Minnie Mouse a lady was holding. She told us that someone had paid her toll that day, so she wanted to pay it forward and bought the Minnie Mouse for Kenzie!
We came home and put up our own tree. Which the cat promptly decided was his.
We also took a trip to Smiling Hill Farm. They hosted a socially distant opportunity to feed some of the animals and take a picture with Santa. It was also a great chance to try out the wheelchair blanket our friends the Pritchards and Miss Lucille bought for Kenzie!
Last weekend, Slugger was doing holiday deliveries. Of course, we had to get one for Kenzie. She was definitely overwhelmed when he showed up. He gave her the hat she is pictured in below. She kept pointing to it all day and wanting to hug it!
On Tuesday, Santa visited Kenzie's school and brought her a Frozen dress. As you can see, she LOVES it!
On Christmas Eve we had lunch at Longhorn. But that didn't stop us from continuing to track Santa on my phone thanks to NORAD!
Waiting for Santa to come...
and wondering if anyone will notice her touching the tree and ornaments, haha.
Santa came!
We had a big windstorm Christmas Eve into Christmas. We were praying we would have power, but had backup plans in place if we didn't. Luckily our power remained on and I was able to bake the cinnamon rolls I had prepped the night before. I had to make them Christmas worthy though. I opted for green icing because I worried red would look like blood. Kevin is now calling them Grinch rolls, haha.
Then it was time to open presents! Kenzie is too funny! When she rips the paper off, she won't just drop it on the floor. She holds it out and waits for someone to take it from her before she will try to rip off any more. She also holds onto her opened present until you ask her if she wants to open another present. Then she nods and hands off whatever is on her tray and patiently waits to take the unopened present!
Just a "small" sampling of the girls presents... Family and friends definitely spoiled them this year!
Kaitlyn giving Kenzie the present she picked out and bought for her.
Kaitlyn was really excited to get a couple of the next books in the series she is reading from Miss Lucille!
I love how closely Kenzie examines everything! She is my little engineer- always trying to figure out how things work!
Someone has to be in the middle of everything. I think he was irritated he couldn't get under the tree!
Thanks Oma and Opa... Frozen is scared of this, haha!
Obviously someone's love of all things Minnie Mouse has spread far and wide!
On our last road trip, Kenzie "stole" Kaitlyn's travel pillow. So she got one of her own for Christmas!
This was one of my favorite games as a kid. This might have been a present to myself disguised as a gift to Kaitlyn, haha.
Kaitlyn REALLY wanted this Lego set, but she hasn't seen it in stores for a while. We told her truthfully that this was one of the ones they were phasing out in stores as they brought in new ones. She was shocked to open it and wanted to know how we had gotten it. Little did she know it had been sitting in my closet for about eight months!
I have never felt so old as I did when she opened this and asked what a boombox was.
Tired out by all her new things!
We had a nice lunch of lasagna with Mammy.
That evening, we drove up to Boothbay Harbor. Every year they do "Gardens Aglow". Usually it is a walking thing and we have never gone. This year, they turned it into a drive thru event. It made it so much more accessible for Kenzie and we got to stay dry since it was still raining!
Kevin has just finished cooking dinner in the Instant Pot he got for Christmas and we are all still alive and the house hasn't exploded, so next we will turn our attention to his birthday and the New Year!
