Christmas in Old Town always kicks off with the Scottish Parade down St. Asaph Street. We are right where the parade starts and therefore always manage to get prime seating to see all the bagpipers, men in kilts, and little dogs wearing sweaters. Evie enjoyed listening to the bands with Dad the most, along with the lollipops.
Once she woke up, Ellie got to show off her Scottish plaid.
Ba and Opa planned to drop by as a surprise and found us at the parade.
Santa was traveling in style in a convertible this year, and apparently brought his pet cheetah along for the ride.
Ellie looks excited to see her first glimpse of Santa Claus!
That night we lit the German carousel - Ellie was amazed!
The next day was a big event: Evie's first viewing of a real performance of the Nutcracker! She and her friend Izzy wait excitedly for our other friends to arrive to take our seats in the auditorium.
Evie, between friends Sidney and Ava, loved every minute of the performance, as you can see from this picture. "Look, Mom, there's ballerinas!"
After the curtain went down, the girls danced around on stage for a couple of minutes. Evie and Ava show off their dance moves.
Hot pink shoes (but her stockings were a little too big)!
The girls are getting a real kick of playing with each other these days. In this scene, Ellie and Evie sit in the "boat" of Daddy's legs while Mommy pretends to be a hungry shark (with a camera). Evie was very dedicated to making sure the shark did not nibble on baby Ellie's fingers.
The girls like to play in the hamper sometimes - with its wheels it makes a pretty good car. Evie made everyone wear crowns and here was Ellie's. What a wonderful weekend for all! And to think the holiday fun is only beginning!
After a delicious brunch with Lori, Julie, Maya, Brant and their son Connor, the family got to decorate our beautiful tree.
Evie had a certain technique of clustering the ornaments on one branch. Ahead of her time, as always.
Even Ellie got into the action, although a lot of the ornaments went straight to her mouth.
Then Dad hung the garland outside with the help of Evie while Ellie watched from inside of the storm door.
Evie all bundled up and posing by the tree.
The next day, the family took a trip on the Santa Express, a trip from Old Town to Manassas on the train, with a special guest - a bagpiping Santa and Mrs. Claus too.
This was Evie's first trip on a train. She loved sitting by the window and watching the world race by, while eating her cookie as well. On the way back, we sang carols and rang bells.
But the highlight of the trip was a nice visit with Santa. Evie was a little shy, but remembered to let Santa know that she would like a kitchen set for Christmas.
You can't help but have "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." running through your head when you see this picture!
