Our Vandyke Christmas

This weekend was our Christmas celebration with my parents. When we got there on Saturday, we headed straight for Silver Dollar City. It is one of my very favorite Christmas activities. When I was in college in Branson, Erick and I spent a lot of time there because it was about the only thing to do in the area.

By the time we arrived, Sophia had slept all of 35 minutes, only to be rudely awakened to a changing of clothes and diaper. Needless to say, she was not feeling very much Christmas cheer. The distance between the van and the first time we could buy a candy cane felt like an eternity! Then all was well.

We hadn't walked very far when I became very grateful for the snowpants I brought along for Sophia. The windchill was 12 degrees, and it did us in pretty quickly.

This is my favorite picture of the Christmas season so far. To say that Sophia enjoyed Silver Dollar City in spite of the temperatures is a vast understatement. We managed to get onto the train with no wait and the entire ride, she bounced and clapped with the music. As we walked along in the City, Sophia just had the look of perfect happiness, and she would frequently try to make eye contact and say "Merry Christmas!" to passers by.

In the morning, we had presents and food. We were all pleased with our haul, and Ah! the food! My dad loves to experiment with a Breakfast Cookbook they recently purchased. Our yumminess of the day included some cheesy sausage biscuits that reminded us of the biscuits from Red Lobster. Delicious. Those were Erick's favorite. Mine was the little bit of heaven that was blueberry French toast bake thingy. Wow. Cream cheese, cubes of French bread, egg, butter, ah. It was so very, very delicious. The picture doesn't do it justice, but maybe my description did. Is your mouth watering?

The best gift of the day goes to my parents for this Bass Pro tent for Sophia. As soon as dad and Erick were able to set it up, she picked up Lulu and Sam the Dog saying, "Let's go hide, Friends." The rest of the morning was spent in and out of the tent, asking nicely for each of us to take our turn in there with her, which we did. It's currently in the corner of our living room. It takes up a lot of space, but it is definitely worth it. Plus, it's easy to take down if we have company without kids.

Anyway, it was the perfect start for Christmas week. Sophia was in fine form, so there are far too many stories to share. I'll try to keep them in mind for a slow news week. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas week!