Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around the World

Frederik Meijer Gardens is a wonderful place to visit to enjoy the spirit of the holiday season. The Christmas trees with dazzling ornaments from countries around the world, the reindeers, and a railway garden ten times bigger than the one we saw in Fernville garden.

Elle was most excited to see the reindeers and had heaps of fun stomping in the snow and kicking snow with her boots as we're heading out to the Children's garden. It's hilarious that while we're staying indoor, she'd moan she was tired and then climb into her stroller lied there and sucked her thumb. However, the moment she stepped outdoor, she turned into an energetic bunny leading in the front and even asking us to hurry up.
Elle loves the Children's Garden and had spent wonderful times here during the summer. The snow didn't seem to stop her crossing the suspension bridge and hanging out at the tree house where she played tea party in the summertime.

Snow is here!

Yesterday, Dec 3, marked the first snow day in Kalamazoo. It's unexpectedly late at this time of the year considers we had a pretty cold summer this year. Elle is so excited that the snow is finally here. She has been waiting for the arrival of the snow so that she could bring her blue duck sleigh, which we got it for a dollar at a garage sales in summertime, out for a ride.

Mama's birthday

She wanted to dig into eating the cake right away so bad. When we asked her who's birthday today, she told us it's her birthday. As we told her it's mama's birthday, she asked "Why? How about my birthday?".

The magic candle was such a teaser, provided way too much fun of blowing it off over and over again. She was screaming "What?" and giggling at it everytime the candle lit up magically after we blew it off.

We had such a quite time reading magazines at B&N while she's asleep in the stroller for an hour. During the dinner, she's enjoying drinking the sparkling juice from a wine glass and eating ribs.

My sunshine

Little Cook

Elle has been obsessed with helping us cooking lately. When it's cooking time, she'd grab her lil' yellow chair, put it next to us and stand on it with her toy spatula in one hand, watching eagerly at what we cook and begging us to let her help out.

It's been a while ago we let her helping out in the kitchen. When she'd like to have macaroni (a.k.a "hello") for lunch, she'd happily drop a couple handfuls of macaroni into the boiling water pot. She loves cooking instant noodles for all of us. The most challenge by far is making chinese pancake. She'd help droping the batter into the pan and I'll quickly swirl it into a round shape. This morning, she helped making mango pudding, stiring and pouring milk into the pot.

Holiday parade

Sea of people flocked to downtown watching the holiday parade. We spent almost an hour in traffic congestion and looking for parking. I'm glad we made it. As first we're standing shoulder to shoulder in the midst of the crowd. As we moved along down to the street, we're surprise to find some space to sit down enjoying the parade itself. The most exciting moment for Elle must be getting the candies thrown by the people in the parade. Surprisingly we stayed till the end of the parade.
After the parade, we walked to Irving's market getting a bite. Elle enjoyed her hot chocolate topped with lots of marshmallow.
The most wonderful surprise during our visit to the Santa House was there's hardly any waiting in line at all. The best of it was even Mrs. Claus was there too. Elle had been talking about wanting to see Santa Claus for presents and candies for a couple of days. When the time finally came, she held on her dada for dear life. Mrs. Claus was very nice to ask them to sit on her chair chatting with Santa. It's funny to watch her just sit there and stared at Santa Claus. When she got off, she came to me asking "Where's my present?". Guess what happenned next? She walked to the corner where lots of presents wrapped beautifully as props and wanted to pick one for herself.
Elle conked out as we're on the way home. The weather was so nice that we decided to hang out at B&N, wishfully thinking that Elle would still asleep. The moment we put her into the stroller, she's awake with eyes wide open. No luck for some peaceful and quite time.

Feet

She requested taking pictures of her feet during bath time.