Santa Visit 2016, S'mores, and Clara's Nutcracker Tea

(Disclaimer: When you are knee deep in book edits, you have zero words left for creative blog post titles. So there's that.)

We made a visit to see Santa this past weekend. Camille was all about it until we actually got to the front of the line where she promptly decided she was not about to sit on Santa's lap without mommy and daddy. We agreed, in order to avoid a meltdown, and in the end she flashed a smile for the camera and let Santa know she would like "ALL THE PINK STUFF!" for Christmas this year.

Too bad Santa looks like he had too much eggnog . . .

A look at years past . . .

Our 2015 picture. . . My parents took the girls last year. :)

After our visit with Santa, we stopped by the carrousel to ride a few 300 times. When you have a special needs kiddo that thrives on the carrousel and laughs and giggles and flashes smiles over and over, you just suck it up and ride 300 times, despite any nausea you might be feeling.

We eventually made it home and after rest time, dinner, and getting Clara tucked into bed, let Camille experience the fun of roasting marshmallows over the fireplace to make s'mores (of which she refused to eat appropriately, but hey, she had a blast).

"WE GOING CAMPING!" - Camille approximately every five seconds after that.

On Sunday, Camille and I attended a little girls Nutcracker tea. A local dance studio puts on an abbreviated version of the nutcracker, which is amazingly smart when you can market to moms of young children who want their girls to experience the show, but know they cannot last hours on end.

Lots of little girls come dressed up and after eating fancy little pb&j sandwiches, fruit, cheese and cookies, they are invited down to the stage to watch the show up close (maybe 30-40 minutes). It was beyond adorable and Camille was in tutu heaven!

She now wants to be a ballerina when she grows up. Shocker.

Camille and her little friend, Sloane. . .

Love this time of year!