Christmas in March?

Um, yep, I am gonna start my blog the same way I always do................I AM BEHIND AGAIN AND CATCHING UP.....thus the title, Christmas in March. To tell the truth, the original title was Christmas in February, so you can see how that turned out.  Had to change to the next month. Anyway, we had a lovely time leading up to our annual Christmas festivities in Arizona.

Since our break let out so late this year, we decided to put up a tiny tree and a few more decorations around the house to make it more festive before we left to NaNa's.

As always, we put up the Manger, though, because for our family, that is the true meaning of Christmas.  I let Bella do all of the arranging this year..........

Until she tried to cram them all inside.........

So, I made a few adjustments and added this precious tree skirt I found.

To kick off the season, we headed to Elveden Forest to see Santa.  Here's Bella waiting to be invited into the Grotto.

Waiting in line at the Grotto.

 It's finally our turn.  Here comes Santa's elf to invite us in.

 The shy girl emerges.

 This is how she REALLY feels about Santa

 

On the 2nd weekend in December, we headed to downtown London to continue reveling the holiday spirit.  This is the flat we rented for the weekend, with the Engels.  Daddy and Bella were playing a spelling game.

We first headed to Hamley's, the world's largest toy store.  It was CROWDED to say the least.   This is Bella's nonverbal communication to us that she would NOT like to be in a picture.

But, mommy won that battle.

William and Kate made out of Legos.

Here you can see Harry, too. (to the left)

For the evening, we headed to Winter Wonderland, which is a big Christmas-themed amusement park put on for the holidays in Hyde Park.  We went two years ago but Bella does not remember.

One of Bella's favorite places to be.....daddy' shoulders.

On the carousel.

Sporting the new hat we bought her.

Posing at the flat

 Making sure Tucker is warm

 Playing with Mr. Brad

 

Her school had a Christmas Party so she had to get dressed for the occasion.  It was at our local play place.

Parents got to meet them there in the afternoon. Bella is waiting with her classmates for a surprise.

The surprise was FATHER CHRISTMAS.  This was the second time she had seen him.

She's not a real fan of seeing Santa, but she stayed long enough to grab the loot.

She got a craft set to make ponies.

Then, there was time for a little teeny bit of playing before heading home.

Once home, she started writing her Christmas cards to her teachers.

A couple days later it was off to Daddy's Squadron's Kids Christmas Party.  She stopped at the Candy Cane Reindeer table first.

Then, some good ol fashioned Christmas coloring.

Ta-da

Then, the Snowman Creation table.

And a little pose in daddy's office.  Note about the outfit:  She had this last year but didn't wear it....so this year it became a tunic instead of a dress.  So, no one can ever accuse me again of waste!! :)

Then, it was visit number THREE to Good Old St Nick.  Notice, this time she REALLY wasn't into it.

The Engels came over to celebrate with us before we both headed to the states.  We opened some gifts and just relaxed.

New purse!

Tucker reads his card from Bella.........

and then she helps him open his gifts.