Spreading Christmas Spirit at Starbucks

Dexter and I brought some of our homemade Christmas cookies to our favorite Barista at Starbucks.

Gingerbread Train!

While out looking for a gingerbread house kit, Ben and I found a gingerbread train kit!

This was, by far, the easiest gingerbread kit ever! It came with ready-to-use frosting that really held like glue AND a tray with divets for steadying the train pieces.

This resulted in a lovely experience building and decorating the gingerbread train with Dexy.

Dexter was really proud. He can't wait to have Ian over to eat it after Christmas. "Is it after Christmas now, Mommy?" Funny how eating the gingerbread train with Ian can overshadow a visit from Santa!

Snow Suited

We got about one-quarter of an inch of snow the other night (and none of it stuck on the roads) but since it was the first snow of the season, Dexter was excited to get suited up in his snow pants. My Bologna is always excited to go out in the snow.

Baking Christmas Cookies

Dexter was fascinated by the cookie-baking process: from covering the board with flour, to rolling out the dough, to pressing down evenly on the cookie cutter, to  carefully pulling the extra dough from the cookie shape.

This is such an interesting age - Dexy is absorbed when learning new things but impatient to show off what he has learned. When this happens before he has mastered the new skill he feels very frustrated. Luckily, the cookie baking experience was an enjoyable one for both Dexter and Mommy.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

 There was no snow on the ground this year so Dexter and Daddy picked up our Christmas Tree from the Y with the little red wagon rather than the sled. Dexter got to pull the wagon home and help Daddy the tree for decorating.

 Dexy enjoyed putting up the ornaments. Perhaps inspired by the tractor sweatshirt he was wearing, he chose all the tractor ornaments to hang.

In true four-year-old-fashion, he tended to clump all the ornaments onto one small section of a couple of low branches (pulling them even lower).