After church we joined my parents for a Christmas brunch at their country club. I was a little nervous about taking the kids but most tables had kids, Santa was there and it was a buffet. They did pretty well and it will hopefully get easier each year.
And, as expected, Caroline did not enjoy Santa at all. She screamed and cried. But, I have a funny photo.
She did much better in her picture with mommy. 
First was the frog craft. The frog tongue was a party blower.
Then we made a Christmas tree with stickers and stamps. Caroline especially enjoyed making this one with Nana's help.
Then we made a crown from a paper plate.
After we finished the crafts we went through part of the museum. There is a new area for kids that included some exhibits that they can touch.
There was also a creative challenge where there was a container with a variety of items that they could use to make things.
We walked through some of the museum. The kids liked the painting of the lady napping. Caroline is pretending to be the napping lady.
I guess it has been awhile since we have been to an art museum because they were running around so excited and amazed at the paintings.
It was a fun morning. Thanks Nana and Pops for joining us.
I found a website that had addresses of houses with cool decorations and I plotted them all out on a map. We started in the neighborhood around our church and then finished in a part of town where there are such great lights that several shopping centers have horse drawn carriages that you can rent to take you through the neighborhoods. Here are some of the photos. They are not great as it is hard to take night shots without a tripod.
Katherine really wanted to get out but then she was cold.
There were a few Nativity scenes in yards and churches.
And more Santa's. Every time we would see a Santa, Katherine would say, "Mommy, it that real or a pretend Santa?"
We love our tradition of a pajama ride.
Then we went into the original estate of the property that became the arboretum to see a Nativity display. I believe there were over 500 Nativity displayed from all over the world made of all kinds of materials. They were amazing and quite beautiful. Having the kids with us meant we went through rather quickly since they were within reach of little fingers.
It is a beautiful house and was decorated beautifully for Christmas so we took a family photo opportunity.
The cottage was decorated like Santa's workshop or a gingerbread house.
A real reindeer made an appearance. This one was Blitzen.
Caroline was pretty excited about the reindeer.
So excited that she tried to climb under the fence to get closer.
I really wanted to get a good picture of the girls together in one of their Christmas dresses but that is a next to impossible task these days. I had to settle for pretty good individual photos. Katherine seems so grown up in this first one.
And pretty silly in this one. 
Caroline is patting her head because to get the girls to laugh, Sam kept saying he had a squirrel on his head. Instead of laughing they just kept patting their own heads. 
They have a Santa set up with a professional photographer but no one was seeing him so he asked Katherine if she wanted to visit. They let me take my own photos. Once again, Caroline did not want to see Santa. She held on to daddy tightly and said, "NO!"
Santa was there. As usual, Katherine did great. She smiled. She talked to Santa.
