Hurry Christmas!

Riley loves playing in Seamus's crate, she shuts the door and say, "Bye-bye, see ya later!"

Poor Seamus, she decided to take a break from feeding her baby and feed him instead

Modeling her new apron from Grandma Cathy, opened early in time for baking cookies

First we picked out the sugar cookie recipe

Riley handed me ingredients as we mixed them

I love my kitchen aid mixer, one of the 1st Christmas gift Chad gave me years ago

Rolling out the dough

Sprinkling on colored sugar

Pressing out some shapes

Our friends Mina and Matteus

Aiden loved adding sprinkles to his cookies

Riley was a pro with the decorating bag

Busy cookie decorators

Riley didn't taste the icing until the very end, then she was done with the cookies

We've been getting a lot of rain. We took advantage of a break to go outside and splash in puddles

Riley had her 1st candycane on our train ride

As you can see from her face, she enjoyed it immensely

Jess, look up and check out these lights!

Riley with Santa and Mrs. Claus

Jen and Jess

At the halfway point we stopped to get out and walk around. Riley couldn't be bothered to look at the camera, she was too busy checking out all the lights on the side of the train

She also liked running down the track

The train was really cool

A happy Freese family after the train ride

One of my favorite Christmas activities is baking and decorating sugar cookies. We did this every year growing up and it holds many wonderful memories for me. I am so happy to continue the tradition and share this with my daughter this year; Riley was a part of the entire process and loved every step. We made the dough together, rolled it out, cut the shapes, sprinkled some with sugar and decorated others with icing. Riley enjoyed feeling the dough and icing, was amazed at the shapes, and of course loved tasting the finished product. She now grabs the rolling pin out of the drawer and says, "Cookies!" We'll have to make more soon.

On Monday we hosted a Christmas party for our friends. Unfortunately a really nasty virus is going around so there were only 3 healthy kids (including Riley) who were able to attend. The kids played and enjoyed decorating and eating the cookies we made.

There is a whole world of things we didn't know existed before we had Riley. Our latest discovery was the Niles Canyon Train of Lights, which we rode on Wednesday with our friend Jess. Its a train all decked out with lights and Christmas decorations. The out-and-back route lasted almost 2 hours. We chose the twilight ride, so on the way out we could see the east bay hills, which are now green from all the rain, and on the way home we truly appreciated all the lights. We enjoyed some cider and treats and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus. This really got us in the holiday spirit and now we can't wait for Christmas to come!