Christmas Traditions

I think one of the mosting exciting things about having a little one at Christmas is the fact that we get to start establishing our own family traditions each year. One of our traditions we want to do every year is take Madi to Build-a-Bear to "build" her a Christmas stuffed animal. Last year we had a gift card that we received at one of Madi's showers. Because she was so small, Andy and I went and got her a little Christmas moose as her present last year. Well, we decided that this year we would let her go and build her own! We knew what she would probably pick, and we were right!
Here she is checking out all of the different kinds of bears and stuffed animals!

Showing mommy the one she wants...
RUDOLPH (or "Ray-yay-off" as Madi calls him)!

Getting him "stuffed full of fluff"!

Giving him a bath and combing his fur
Lovin' the final creation...her own Rudolph that lights up, sings, and talks!

After Build-a-Bear, Andy was craving pizza, so we decided to take Madi for her first experience at Chuck-E-Cheese (or "Chuckle-Cheese" as Madi says)!
Riding with Chuck-E was her favorite! Normally this ride takes a picture of you with Chuck-E, but the picture machine wasn't working. However, that's probably a good thing because we rode this ride no less than 5 times! That would have been a lot of snapshots with Chuck-E! :)
Riding the clock swing...what fun!

As you can see, we had such a fun family day together! I just love this time of year when Andy is off and we can really spend some quality time together! After being sick and cooped up in the house last week, this trip was just what we needed!

Oh, and this totally doesn't fit with the theme of this post, but ....Madi wore her first ponytail yesterday! Doesn't she look so cute?! Such a big girl!