Christmas with the Pastor, Etc.

Last night was "Christmas with the Pastor" at our church. It is how the church kicks of this month's celebration of Christmas. When we arrived they had all of the Christmas lights up around the campus, and the main hallway outside of the fellowship hall was decorated with a bunch of Christmas trees. It was really beautiful, and I really started to get in the mood for Christmas. It's different here - because it's warmer, it doesn't *feel* like Christmas. But, I think last night changed that. At "Christmas with the Pastor", the kid choirs sing a bunch of songs, which is really cute. Lily loved it and was clapping, dancing, and watching intently.

What's great about Christmas with the Pastor is that there are kids EVERYWHERE. When Lily squeals outrageously loud, no one notices! It was such a fun experience to be singing Christmas songs at church, with my baby girl, and to not have to worry about whether or not she was behaving perfectly.

Here are some cute pics of the decorations and the service:

Lily is a huge fan of fist bumping:

She is also a huge fan of kissing. It's really cute, though (for now).

 After the singing, Dr. Powell had all of the kids come up to the front. They sat on the stage and filled the floor in front of him. I don't know how I expected this to go, but I hadn't anticipated how amazing it would be. Dr. Powell was so animated and good with the kids. He had figurines for every character from the donkey and the camel, to the three kings, to Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. As he told the story, he showed each character to the kids. It was quite a feat that he was able to keep so many entertained for the whole 15-20 minutes.

Aftwerwards, the church provided cocoa and cookies. Lily took a couple bites of her cookie, but didn't seem to think it was anythng too special. She made a pretty funny face at the cocoa - wasn't a fan of that AT ALL.

Lily with Papa and Dr. Powell:

Lily with Nana and Papa:

(we seem to have lost our tights and shoes at some point)

I dressed Lily in a green velvet dress last Sunday for church. Clay tried to tell me it wasn't December yet, but since it was after Thanksgiving, my opinion is that Christmas dresses were officially allowed. I'm glad I was able to find a short sleeved one at the consignment store, since it was over 80 degrees outside.

I am OBSESSED with these next few pics:

 And today it is officially December!!! I guess the weather decided to act like it is winter (kind of) since the high is 72 today - I'm pretty sure that's as cold as it gets here. But, I was excited, because I could finally dress Lily in some of her fall-ish clothes.

She decided to taste a rock this morning and kept saying "uck" afterwards.

Not sure what happened to the lighting on this one - it was the best I could get of the 2 of us. Taking a picture of yourself with a large professional camera is a lot harder than with the regular small digital one.

Sitting in Daddy's lap while Mommy loads up the car:

She must have thought she was going to drive, because she got really excited:

 I got a close-up of her eyes on the way to school, because people are always asking me color they are. I really have no idea. Inside they ususally look gray or maybe a greenish-gray. When sun shines on them then sometimes look tan, or like in this picture they look kind of green with brown in the center. 

I'm super excited it is finally December. I'm ready to start doing all of our Christmas traditions with Lily. But I will finish this post with these amusing pictures - she always tries to attack me at least once while I am taking her picture, and wants to get really close to the lense - I think she thinks she can look through and see me from the other side :)