Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas this year. We got our tree on a particularly muddy day in early December. It was extra special as the tree was grown in a little Christmas tree forest that has been run by local high schoolers since the 1940's, and is actually located on Glen Helen property. Malcolm has been vigilant about making sure we turn on the lights first thing every morning. 

He got all decked out in his Elf gear on Christmas Eve:

Malcolm figured out presents really quickly this year, passing them out to us as we went:

Present opening had to cease for half an hour when he opened this one:

The grand finale was his gift from Santa,

a circus tent of his very own:

Earlier in the month, he painted the ornaments. He quickly realized that a paint brush was quite unnecessary, and moved on to squeezing the paint directly from the bottles into the ornaments. I think it made for a nice effect. 

We mixed up some sugar cookies on Christmas Eve, and from then on, any time I mentioned baking, he'd run to the kitchen and reach for his apron. On Christmas Day, we decorated, and he quickly transferred over his painting skills:

He loved the sprinkles too, of course:

That evening, we went to a local light show on the river:

We roamed all the local shopping malls plenty this season as we were getting used to Malcolm's patching treatment. The oldest mall had the best decorations:

Including this gliding horse, which Malcolm would have stayed on all night if we hadn't made him leave: