Visit to Santa

Today (yes up to date news!) we visited Santa at a local mall. Daddy and Andrew met Uncle Pete and Mommy there. It was a long line for the middle of a workday but Andrew was a trooper and we had 3 adults jumping up and down to try to get him to smile. Though he wasn't too sure about Santa, there was no crying, just a little serious look at first, followed by some confusion, but once Santa had a book for them to look at together, Andrew was feeling okay about the situation. We of course bought photos and the rights and USB stick. Here's a sweet photo of Andrew reading with Santa.

We have a real white pine Christmas tree that Andrew helped us pick out at the university's forestry program tree lot (supports the students!). He helped pick out safe ornaments to put up and takes some off to carry them around the house.

Andrew is also nearly exclusively walking now that he is an official toddler. Both Nick and I had moments of "whoa" when Andrew first took our hand and walked next to us. He's a little boy now!

If we don't post again before Christmas---Merry Christmas to all!!