Wrapping up

Is everyone ready??

Me neither.  In fact just looking at that number “4” makes my eyelid twitch; thus, I am going to make this post short and sweet so we can all get back to what is really important—eating more Christmas chocolate!

We finally completed our “Holiday Activity List” that I previously mentioned by going out in style with Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s garden festival of lights. 

It was as beautiful as always, but much more crowded than I remembered in years past.  Thankfully, the masses did not seem to faze Frances and George who spent most of the night oooo-ing and awwww-ing on cue.

Inside the conservatory - model trains, Santa and a huge Christmas tree. 
I'm not sure George noticed anything after he saw the trains.

Outside - peacocks, unicorns, candy canes and igloos just to name a few.

I have no idea how the garden does this every year (or how any of the plants survive all of the predictable stomping in and out of the flower beds by curious children), but I am very happy they do.  It really was the highlight (so far) of the holiday season.

Looking over the lake to the fully-decorated tree house.

Frances and George have also been helping me with some holiday baking.  Yes, I know; that statement sounds completely unfathomable and invented for the sake of a good blog post.  But there is a holiday recipe out there that a two and a four-year-old can actually help make and where the end product is edible (and in fact requested many, many times by those who have tried them)—Pretzel Hugs.

I found this recipe on another blog (thank you, Erin!) and experimented with just Frances initially (while George was still napping).

The next batch included George's help by creating an assembly line—Frances unwrapped the hugs and George put them on the pretzels.  I did the final steps of putting them in the oven and putting the M&Ms on, but I’m fairly certain they would have been fine helping me with that part, too.  I always get nervous with the kids, especially George, around a hot oven; but I have no doubt in a year’s time the children will be making these entirely on their own.

George's "soldiers" as he calls them.  Frances and I just call them good.

And with that, I will sign off because I have more pretzel hugs waiting to be made and a million other little things to be done in the next 96 hours.  Gulp.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!