Here we come a caroling...

Here's a bonus post of a very memorable Christmas season activity, thanks to some cute photos taken by our friends Wes and Mara. (Thanks, guys!)

As some of you know, we helped start a Young Families group at our parish last year with a few other couples and one of our young parish priests. The group aims to help parents of young children network and build a stronger faith community (since we don't have school activities yet to introduce us to other parents). It's been going really well, and being at church has been so much better when you look around and know so many of the families around you. If you're interested in learning more about our group, check out our Web site (www.stpeteryoungfamilies.com).

The group decided to go Christmas caroling this year (even though none of us had ever been caroling before) -- so we met at church one evening and sung at nearby homes with our kiddos. Oh yeah, and it was 37 degrees. Brrrrr.

We were not very good singers, but the kids had fun. Ryan even clapped after each song, and kind of sung along to Jingle Bells once. Here's two shots -- one of the group (yes, that's Daddy holding the sign), and one of Ryan's cute little bundled up face. Precious!


Couldn't you just eat him up?

Preparing for Christmas

It's been a while since we've posted -- the cooler weather seems to have tamed our schedule of outings quite a bit! Like everyone, we're spending most of our time now doing things to prepare for Christmas.

We brought home our Christmas tree this past weekend, and Ryan has only touched it once so far (and declared a heartfelt "uh oh" when needles fell off the tree). We haven't put up any decorations on it yet, so we'll see how long until he's climbing it. :)

We've been reading Christmas stories, singing carols, dancing to the holiday stations on the radio and yes, we even visited Santa at the North Pole (a.k.a. Chesterfield Mall). Ryan's been starting the "stranger anxiety" thing a bit lately, so I was nervous, but he instantly reached out to grab Santa's hat and just sat on his lap gazing at him. It was so cute.

Of course, he didn't smile though -- he had his serious face on while he studied this stranger. Enjoy a little piece of Trammell family history...the infamous "Santa" shot:


We've got lots of Trammell family coming to visit over the holidays, so we'll surely have a lot to report on shortly. And in case we don't post beforehand, Merry Christmas!