Last Weekend Before Christmas - Eek!

To be honest, I do feel fairly ready for Christmas. Presents are wrapped. Packages have been sent. We even had our first family celebration of the season last night (more on that later). But it's still hard to believe this month has come and gone so quickly, and that it's practically 2015. 

One thing that I've never done before that I see all over Pinterest and blogs is a Christmas-themed breakfast. Last year around this time Ezzy was barely eating solids, so there wasn't really any need to go all out for breakfast since Joe and I aren't really on the same eating schedules (he's up before the crack of dawn, and I prefer my sleep). This year I made Joe wait to eat, got up before Ez, and made a crescent roll Christmas wreath (stuffed with eggs, cheese, and fake bacon, and topped with guacamole and cherry tomatoes - recipe here), a strawberry banana "candy cane", tater tots, and I attempted to make these festive shaped pancakes, but after the first batch burnt and stuck to the cookie cutters, I decided to just add Christmas sprinkles to the batter, make mini pancakes, and call it a day. Nobody seemed to mind that they weren't shaped like little Christmas trees.

After breakfast we took a walk to the park:

That evening we decided we still hadn't had enough holiday lights (you may remember we went last weekend as well), and found a few new places that we may just add to our annual tradition. One of them was way out in Woodland Hills, but it was cool because there were about 4 blocks of houses that were decorated and the whole experience was more like a Christmas festival than your run of the mill holiday light tour. There were churro and funnel cake carts, hot chocolate, and cars and people everywhere. We decided to walk instead of dealing with the crazy traffic. Ez loved every minute of it because there were both cars AND Christmas lights. A combo that can't be beat. 

Thomas the Train was a huge hit with the kiddos.

On Saturday afternoon Ez went to his first Christmas party! There were two other toddler a little older than him, and three tiny babies. Lisa, who hosted the party, used to be a preschool teacher and she had a ton of fun crafts planned. In a two hour span the kids painted, made hand print ornaments, played with playdough, and made little easter egg/bean maracas. Ez loved each activity, and it made me realize maybe I'm slacking a little in the crafts department at home. He was so concentrated on his painting, and sorting the beans for the maracas kept him busy for the remainder of the party. I guess it really is the simple things, right?

As you can see, Ez wasn't a huge fan of the bounce house.

In case you weren't convinced, here he is trying to escape.

More in his element.

My little Picasso even painted his own face. I think it came out great :)

Play dough time!

Ez insisted on sitting in the bumbo seat.

We did a book exchange at the end. Of course Ez loved the wrapping paper most.

Obligatory end-of-party picture where none of the toddlers are looking in the same direction.

On Sunday evening we celebrated an early Christmas with Grandma Kat and Grandpa Brett. I'll save that for another post though, since there's already so much Christmasy stuff in this one ;)