a little christmas cheer

The Smiddleton Middlewartzes have been doing it up, Christmas-style! Check out some of our holiday adventures (ok, they're admittedly low-key, but that's how this family rolls.)

Last Friday, we visited Philly with some friends of ours to see the annual Macy's light show and to check out the Christmas Village. Ellie and Haley enjoyed entertaining themselves (and everyone around them) with their karate moves, though neither of them were fearless enough to take on the "scary" nutcracker.

This is about as close to the Nutcracker as they would get.

Ryan and Ellie take in the light show.

We also bought a live (like, seriously alive, in a pot!) Christmas tree to put in our little turret. This was our plan before we even officially bought the house. Even our real estate agent commented on what a perfect Christmas tree spot the turret would make. What we didn't plan on was that this baby tree would weigh over 200 lbs. and that Ryan would practically injure himself hoisting it upstairs. Hopefully we will keep it alive to use as a Christmas tree for a few more years before planting it outside, where we were told it could potentially reach Rockefeller Center tree heights. And yeah, hopefully we will also be able to relocate it outside without hurting ourselves once the holidays are through!

Our live Christmas tree!

Second Christmas, but first tree!

Ellie enjoys rearranging the ornaments.

This month, a number of holiday decorations were crafted by the preschooler of the house. She also lent Ryan a hand in baking Christmas cookies, which sadly turned out so bad even she refused to eat them!

I couldn't resist this little $1 craft I found at Target!

I was told that Ellie was disturbed by this menorah craft since flames don't belong on fingers.

Love this Grinch project from school!

At least the batter tastes good!

And last but not least, Elliott performed in a school Christmas concert earlier in the week. In light of October's Halloween performance, we weren't sure how she would hold up singing on stage, and I was a little worried when we arrived at the high school to find the auditorium packed. But as soon as the teachers called the kids up on stage (all 67 of them!), she ran up there and sang like a little angel. We were so proud of her for trying so hard and for having so much fun. Since she doesn't reveal much about school, I really had no idea how many songs they had been working on - their repertoire was truly impressive! As they were singing their last song, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the jolly old elf himself showed up to bestow little gifts to all the kids, and Elliott was pretty excited about seeing him and receiving a coloring book.

Singing her heart out in the front row!

Ellie later told us that all her classmates got rectangles from Santa.

Here they are singing "The Grinch" and "Rudolph."

If you can make it all the way to the end, I promise it will be well worth it!