Christmas 2012: staycation!

We spent Thanksgiving break in St. Louis, so we decided to switch things up a bit and stay home this year for Christmas. This is our first year just staying home during the winter break, and we are definitely enjoying it, although of course we miss our relatives! The break started off with Belen's annual daycare holiday party. Last year, Caleb was TERRIFIED of Santa, despite "his" blonde hair and Argentinean accent. This year, Caleb was totally comfortable with Santa.

On our family's first full day off together, Carolyn had the idea to drive up north. We stopped in New Paltz (where we had gotten married in 2004) and had lunch at the Gilded Otter (where we had eaten for our post-wedding meal). It was so neat to go back there with our two kids!

After lunch, we continued on to Kingstown, NY to ride the Santa train. It was a cold day, but we all enjoyed the short train ride with Santa aboard. Santa was a bit concerned because Avery was just wearing a short-sleeved tee shirt, but Avery was okay and liked the train!