joy to the world

ding dong ding dong - Christmas bells are ringing!  we slowly but surely decorated and got into the Christmas spirit.  dax was a huge help this season and really enjoyed decorating the tree, making ornaments at school to bring home, and reminding us to always check to make sure the lights are on every night (even though they are on a timer).

now that we've succumbed to the artificial tree we keep it stored in the attic.  dax wanted to use the long piece of "garland" that keeps the tree tightly wrapped as part of the decoration.  we let him hang that on the tree and then he went ahead and hung ornaments on that.

because dax's pre-school class is called "the owls" he's got quite a few owl ornaments this year.

 after tree decorating was finally done we found some other weekend down time to head to a live walk through nativity one night and then also to watch the local Christmas parade.  dax really got into all of the activities this year and especially loved the parade since it wasn't too cold outside and he got a lollipop.

dax and daddy watching for the first float.

we were all particularly fond of this high school marching band from southeast raleigh high.  this group of folks really got into it and stole the show!

 

 

 

will held dax on his shoulders for the majority of the parade so he could see everything.  after a while he got a little fidgety, so i took over the holding process.  dax was liking this new perspective, and will was thankful for a break.

here we are seeing the big man in red.

this tuesday dax had his first pre-school on stage experience in their annual Christmas production.  dax missed several days being out last week for his ear infection, and so we were not quite sure how much he'd learned or how prepared he was for the big event.  he did surprisingly well standing on stage and even sang along to some of the songs at the critical moments.  earlier in the weekend he'd surprised me when i was singing "joy to the world" and he finished the rest of the song!  as verified they'd been working on it at school, so clearly he had picked up on some of it.  while he didn't sing every word, this boy sure does love a crescendo like his mama!

we're all excited to celebrate the season of Jesus' birth and cannot wait to spend time with family over the Christmas holiday break.