Wichita Falls Christmas

We started off our Christmas with a friend get together at Sherrie and Annette's new apt. There were guys there too, they just didn't want to be in the picture! We ate a lot of great food!

Then Avery and I went to Wichita Falls the week before Christmas to celebrate there since we would be with Rustin's family on Christmas Day this year.

We went the the Fantasy of Lights two nights in a row because we knew Avery would love it, and she did! It was so fun to take her somewhere that I grew up going. We have a picture of my mom holding me in front of this train when I was little so we tried to recreate it.

Then we took a few other pictures. I'm not an excellent photographer so a few are a little blurry, but you get the idea :)

Looks like a creepy ghost Santa in the background -

I look forward to taking Avery there each Christmas!

She also had a lot of fun just hanging out at the house with Grandpa and Lyle.

Then we decided to take Avery to see Santa. We didn't take her last year because it was just so stressful with my Grandad passing away, and she was extremely fussy all the time. I'm so glad I took her in WF. I saw the line at NorthPark in Dallas and it looked like it would have taken 2 hours! We walked right up and were behind just one person at good ol' Sikes Senter. They even let you take your own picture (which was really cool because even though I wanted to remember the moment, I knew she was going to scream and didn't really want to drop $25 for a picture of it).

This is the before when she was still happy -

And then we saw Santa -

I think the whole mall heard her screaming!

She also took her first "real" steps while we were there. She has been cruising for a while and will take a couple of wobbly steps, but she took 3-4 in WF. She has done all of her milestones on cool days - sat up on St. Patrick's Day, crawled on my 30th birthday, and walked on the day the world was supposed to end (Dec. 21).

I really think the reason she's not really walking yet is because she's a scaredy cat like her mom. When I take her to the park, the other little kids love the swing, but she acts like I'm making her sky dive when I put her in it. She has a look of terror on her face and immediately wants out. I think once she gets the courage up, she'll be running everywhere! (no rush though)