"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

I had all but published this post when we had a few expected and unexpected surprises occur.

First, we are so happy to announce that we are proud uncle, aunt and cousin to new baby Elizabeth! Bjorn's sister had a beautiful baby girl and we couldn't be happier for mama Kaarin and dada Patrick. She is absolutely precious and we can't wait to meet her!

The 2nd unexpected happening occurred when Miss Lily had a seizure on Sunday afternoon. After several hours in the ER they believed it was a febrile seizure due to the fact that she had a high and quick rising temperature. They sent us home, but when Lily had 2 more seizures the next morning they had us back to the hospital where we spent the night. After a very normal MRI we were sent home. We'll have an EEG this week that we pray is normal. Hopefully all this seizure business is done with and we can be, in the words of Sir Paul, simply having a wonderful Christmas time!

Nick Jr. TV might be the greatest gift children's hospital has ever received.

Our room had quite the view!

Enjoying some food after a long day.

Deck the halls- our house is ready for Christmas! We've got our swag from the Boy Scout next door, a wreath from our amazing realtor Marilyn Johnson, and 3 new little trees from Menards.

Lily has accepted that trees are for admiring, not pulling down. She always says "it's beautiful!"

I was quite excited to find this gem at Target last month. I love the idea of a nativity scene especially for Lily, that she can rearrange and play with. One of my favorite things to do was(is) arrange the figurines just so. I always made sure that everyone was looking at baby Jesus. Someone would move it around and I would have to fix it back to my certain configuration. Early signs of my OCD? : )

As you can see, all eyes on the Baby.

With the incredible gift of school cancellation last Wednesday, we spent the day hanging out at home with Sam & Mara. There was some cookie decorating, play dough playing and Little People town making. What a fabulous way to spend a "free" day together!

Lily was more interested in eating the frosting vs. frosting the cookies.

I did give her a spoon to frost hers, that might have conveyed the wrong message.

Sam was a professional!

Lily's learning...

Mara's candy cane looked exquisite.

Always up for holiday fun, we met up with Annie & Grace to catch Santa Clause at Gerten's garden center. I wish I would have taken a few pictures of the displays they had- amazing plants and Christmas cheer. Lily loved the opportunity to sit in the cart with the girls.

Seeing the man in red made her a bit edgy, but she allowed me to get close enough to capture a picture with her and Santa. He was so friendly, and she now thinks that he is a giver of candy, that we might attempt one more picture with the jolly fellow at the mall.

Candy canes sure are tempting!

After the Santa visit, we scooted around through the displays for as long as 3 little ladies would allow. They enjoyed the trees, lights and even a deer. I would love to meet the person that has this stuffed animal as part of their holiday display.

What you can't see is that this guy is actually a 10 point buck.

Tis' the season!