Some Christmas Fun

In other {better} news we have managed to have some holiday fun this month!

A few weekends ago we made it to the zoo to see the Wildlights.  It probably wasn't the best time to go.  We had originally planned to go on a weeknight evening when it would be less crowded, but then I started to get some pelvic pain and I wasn't sure if we waited much longer if I would be able to do all the walking that's necessary to see the lights so we decided to take our chances and go on a Saturday.  A Saturday in December where the high temperature for the day was in the 60s.  Apparently everyone else and their mother had the same idea as us.

Thankfully, we planned to get there early so we beat some of the traffic.  We saw that the main freeway exit most people take to get the zoo was backed up for about 2 miles so we decided to get off at the next exit and kind of go the back way.  It definitely saved us some time, but then we hit a line of traffic about 1 1/2 miles from the zoo entrance and sat in that traffic for about an hour.  Yes, AN HOUR to get 1 1/2 miles.  It was insane.  Poor Jack, he did really well, but towards the end he was like, "I want to get out of the car now.", "I want to go to the ZOO!".  He just didn't understand why we had hyped up this trip and then were just sitting in the car forever and a day. 

ANYWAY, we eventually got there and it wasn't so bad.  Jack loved seeing the lights!  It was pretty crowded, but we didn't stay too long considering we had to get home for Jack's bedtime and I really wasn't in any shape to be walking miles and miles.  It was actually more crowded as we were leaving than when we had arrived and on the way out there were STILL people waiting in a long line to get to the zoo entrance and they were only open for about another hour.  Craziness!

Jack's been pretty uncooperative about pictures lately, but I did get some photographic evidence that we were there:

Riding the Merry-go-Round.  Jack LOVES to ride the pony.

Watching an animated light display.

Earlier this week we took Jack to see Santa.  We weren't really sure how it would go, but we figured we would try it.  Well... it wasn't exactly a success.  Jack absolutely did not want to sit on Santa's lap and he hardly wanted to acknowledge his presence.  Eventually he did talk to him a bit, which was cute.  I wish I had thought to snap a pic while they were talking, but at that point I was holding out hope that he would warm up and sit on his lap.  When Santa asked him if he wanted to sit on his lap Jack responded, "No... not today, Santa.".

So, no pic with Santa again this year.  And there wasn't even a line this time!  The best I could get looks like this:

We tried!  Maybe next year.  I'm just not down with forcing him to sit with a stranger for the sake of a photo op that will just show him crying :(

And today we made cut out cookies!  Man are those things a pain.  Also, baking sure isn't what it used to be 36 weeks ago!  I am glad we did it even though I wasn't really feeling it because Jack had tons of fun helping!  Plus now I have cookies to eat :) 

Enjoying the fruit of his labor.

Am I the only one who tries a new cut out cookie recipe every year?  Because I totally do.  I just haven't found The One yet.  These cookies are promising, but we haven't frosted them yet.

Also, as you can see in the background of the cookie pictures, there is actually snow on the ground! First snow of the year. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!