Bingeing on Christmas Cheer.

The weekend before Christmas we had a magical time filled with holiday cheer. I was determined to ensure that this Christmas was perfect for Zachary, it being his first. And by Zachary I mean for me because he is only 6 months and really does not care no matter how many Christmas books or carols I sing. Because of one reason or another we still were without a tree by the week before and still hadn't taken Zack to meet Santa. This was not ok with me. I was the girl who would shush her baby to sleep to the tune of Jingle Bells every day. So, to make-up for it we spent the weekend bingeing on Christmas cheer.

First we took Zachary to meet Santa:

I've seen a lot of pictures lately of babies' first trips to meet Santa and every single one looked like they were being forced to listen to Michael Buble. Tortured, that is. My little man was all about it though. It really was an incredibly awesome experience that we will never forget. Sweetest elves. No line. Zachary smiled immediately and then loved just getting to hang out on Santa's lap while Mommy looked at pictures. Santa was very sweet just talking to him and the second picture was even taken because while we were looking at the other pics Santa called for his elf to capture Zachary's fascination. I wasn't too surprised. He had been really into illustrations of Santa in the books we had been reading, he loves the color red, and he's a photographer's child.

They even let us take our own pictures while there. I didn't really want to be "that" parent so I kept it brief, though I did pull my D300 out of my purse =).

We did get a family photo with Santa. That however will not be shared. I'm all about self-humiliation. I mean you should see me dance. But you have to draw the line somewhere sometimes.

We then headed off to cut-down our tree:

He went from amused to perplexed quickly. Usually people reserve that look for my aforementioned dancing.

Later that night we headed off to Christmas in the Park in San Jose. I had remembered it being pretty lame. It was quite the opposite though. Pure magic.

These are some pictures taken with Instagram on Dave's phone (cause I'm lame and have a Droid for now). You can follow me @tenleyclark. 

The next day we attended a very fun Christmas party:

Ok so you can't tell it was very fun by this. I didn't get too many pictures as we just enjoyed the company. 

It was truly a lovely weekend. 

I am currently watching Rio for the first time. Holy cuteness. I'm dreaming up how to train Roxy to have our own handshake and take photobooth pictures together.