Beards are SCARY.

This weekend was pretty low-key, so I will just mention three holiday-ish things we did! They're more fun than mentioning the chores we completed, the unexciting food we ate, yadda yadda yadda.

Christmas event #1

We took Caroline Quinn to see Santa Claus! Last year at this time, she was a tiny, fragile little girl who couldn't get a flu shot (in the middle of intense flu season), so she didn't see Santa last year. We put her in a dress (short sleeves, no tights... oh, Florida) and took her to see Santa! We got to the mall early and walked around and returned to see a line to see Santa. Well, it's good there was a line because when we were halfway to the front Caroline popped a squat, had a look of intense concentration, and definitely pooped. Josh ran her to the bathroom while I held our place in line. Oh, parenthood, you're hilarious.

When we got to Santa we let Caroline check him out while we waited for the photographer. She just stared at Santa... mostly at Santa's beard. It's important to note here the title of my entry. Caroline is terrified of beards. She loves her Uncle Mike but he had a full beard when we got to New Hampshire recently. She was so scared of his beard that he ended up shaving it off early in the week and she suddenly loved him again. Caroline has a history of being anti-beard, so it's not surprising she was scared of Santa (lucky for her, her daddy is incapable of growing a beard)!

When we put her in Santa's lap she SCREAMED. Bright red face, trembling bottom lip, tears on the face, SCREAM. I was prepared for this moment because she's going through an extremely clingy phase with me where she cannot stand being two feet away from me, let alone being held by someone else (she's fine with Josh, but anyone else... forget it). I ended up jumping in the picture with her. She isn't smiling, we didn't fix her dress in the chaos, BUT she's not screaming!

Santa's beard is so big because it's filled with secrets.

Christmas Event #2

We took Caroline to see Christmas lights! They set up a light display in a park near our home and do a wonderful job. Caroline was thrilled and loved all of the lights (she especially liked the polar bears). Unfortunately, it was a short trip so not many photos were taken... stupid rain gets in the way of everything! We may take her back this weekend if it's nice outside so she can spend more time admiring the lights. 

No one-year-old should be that tall next to a 6'4" guy... love my giant!

 Christmas Event #3

We put up our Christmas tree! We opted to not get a large, live tree this year because 1) they're expensive, 2) we won't be home Christmas week to enjoy it, 3) we won't be home Christmas week to take care of it and keep Parker from destroying it. We decided to just put a small tree up in Caroline's room. Last year, when packing up ornaments, I made a box of "Caroline ornaments" which consists of angels, dogs, ballerinas, and her first Christmas ornaments from both sets of grandparents. Caroline is absolutely mesmerized by her Christmas tree (as is Parker). I think she wants us to leave it up year round ;)

Hello, Mr. Tree, you're quite handsome <3

I hope everyone is keeping safe and warm up north! You can always come down to Tallahassee where it's 70 degrees and sunny ;) As much as we are enjoying this warm weather, we cannot wait to travel to Virginia and experience Christmas in a place where winter actually exists! Caroline is very excited to see everyone very soon <3