1 day: Kerrytown and tea lights in Dexter

A day of tradition, a morning in Kerrytown, an afternoon of last minute shopping, an evening spent with family, an after dark drive through the candle lined streets of Dexter, and Twas the Night Before Christmas and The Polar Express before bedtime. Now the Santa toys are assembled and set out and the stocking is full...Merry Chrstmas to all and to all a good night.

And in front of our own home, too

2 days: final preparations

A handful of presents to wrap, an extra day of caroling, and some cooking for upcoming celebrations. Jon was home for lunch and was able to join us for gingerbread train construction. Let the festivities begin.

And then we let calvin loose with the camera...

3 days: caroling at home

There were a few years in a row, back when my brother was still in town to join us and our son was not even a twinkle in our minds, that we attempted caroling in our neighborhood. Sadly it was not well received, so over the past few years we've enjoyed caroling together in our own living room instead and this year we invited our families to join us and made a regular season opener out of it. Fa la la la la.

4 days: the obligatory day at the mall?

I try every year to get our shopping done early and every year it's the same thing: when those final shopping days come around and everyone and their monkey's uncle has descended up on the mall, I find myself feeling lonely and left out of the spirit. So, with only a few extra pieces left to pick up, Calvin and I donned our santa hat and reindeer antlers and spent the better part of the day among the throngs. We stopped by to see Santa, who, for the first year in all the years I've been doing this, wouldn't let me take any pictures with my own camera even if I purchased one of their crummy ones, so we took pictures with the nearby woodland animals instead.

I asked Calvin to think of something funny...

No, Calvin, I said think of something funny, not do something funny

That's better.

5 days: Chestnuts roasted in an oven

We enjoy this old fashioned tradition every year at Greenfield's Holiday Nights and we thought it would be fun to share them with Calvin. We brought extras home from our night of festivities and reheated them in the oven—not as good as when they were fresh, really, but still quite fun, and Calvin really enjoyed them.