Advent Calendar days 9-11

December 9th was make a Holiday treat. This ended up being this today because I realized when I got home from work that I had a potluck the next day and needed to make a dessert item. My favorite cookie is a peanut butter cookie with the chocolate star on them so I wanted to make them but I didn't have any stars so we used chocolate chips scattered on the top. Oliver did a pretty good job putting the chips on the top. I also made a pumpkin torte because I realized that my cookies were oh so good to take and give away. The torte was pretty fabulous as well.

December 10th was go see Santa. Every year where I work at the Guttenberg Hospital they have Santa come visit for employees children/grandchildren. We had been talking to Oliver about Santa for weeks ahead of time preparing him to go see him. We would tell him not to be afraid and that he didn't have to cry, but that he should just go up to him and sit on his lap to tell him what he wants for Christmas. Well, it paid off. He did amazing for the shy boy he is! We walked in and Santa was right there. Oliver couldn't take him eye off of him even when taking his coat off and he went up to him and sat down. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas Oliver said, "a fishing pole." Santa asked him what he was going to do with a fishing pole and Oliver said "to go fishing in the Turkey River."

People at work commented on how well he did for a 3 year old and that he was the perfect boy. I was pretty proud of him. 

After seeing Santa we headed up to Marquette to see the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train come to town. Shawn's parents have taken Oliver to see this before but I had never been it was really exciting to see the train pull into town all lit up. Shawn had texted me that it came through Postville by his shop so we knew we didn't have to wait long for it to arrive. We really only waited about 10-15 minutes for it and we had a perfect spot to watch it. Unfortunately it was frigid cold at 7 degrees so we were dressed in all our winter clothes including snowpants, boots, and thermal pants and we were still freezing.  

The train included a band and Santa of course but since we just had saw Santa at Guttenberg, we didn't go with the crowds of people to see him but headed to the train engine.  

Oliver didn't much like walking right next to the engine because it was so noisy and he thought it would start moving at any minute. After leaving there we went over to Prairie to eat some supper before coming home to tell Daddy all about our busy exciting day!

December 11th is read every Christmas book we own. As I'm typing this we've only read 4 of them and have approximately that many more to read yet tonight. With temps below 0 even before 6 pm it is a good night to snuggle and read books.