Fitting it all in

I've been trying to fit in something fun & Christmassy every day now that I'm finished my exams. Thought I'd go through the list & see what we've done & what's left:

1. riding the Bright Nights Christmas Train at Stanley Park (Sadly this was a fail--the train was sold out by the time Sprout had woken up from his late nap, we'd fed him a quick dinner & gotten there by bus. I think we'll have to go much earlier next year, like the first week they're open.)
2. a photo with Santa (at least we got to do this at Bright Nights)
3. getting & decorating our Christmas tree
4. putting a fresh evergreen wreath on the front door
5. seeing the Trinity Street Light Festival
6. sending out Xmas cards
7. hand delivering Xmas cards to people living near us (only managed to get out two or three so far, heh)
8. baking some cookies (I've eaten a lot of chocolate & other people's baking, but not made any yet myself)
9. making more fabric gift bags
10. making Sprout a few things (puppet, stuffie)
11. adding ear flaps & ties to Sprout's hats so we can keep them ON him (Success! See below for photographic evidence)
12. visiting the VanDusen Festival of Lights
13. going tobogganing if it snows
14. visiting the Peak of Christmas (Grouse Mountain)

Should have been on the list: 

• Getting a gift for my nephew (tried really hard to come up with a gift I could make that he'd like, but a kid obsessed with Lego & construction in general is hard to sew for)
• Finishing two more items of doll clothing for the set I'm making for my nieces.
• putting together a gingerbread house
• planning & possibly making some of what Sprout & I are going to wear for the big family Christmas dinner (Oli has to figure out his outfit for himself)
• Assembling one of Sprout's presents (it's a rocking moose... shhhh... don't tell him!)
• Wrapping all the Christmas gifts with my gift bags/wraps

Here are the pics from our Bright Nights attempt:

On the #19, before we knew the train was totally sold out.

"Joy o' the Wo"?

Sprout was unimpressed by the animatronic Disney characters &
mildewy seven dwarf stuffies (Sleepy, Happy, Grumpy, Dopey,
Sneezy, Doc & another Doc. Bashful was AWOL).

The displays are a hilarious mish-mash of animatronic
figures, painted wooden cutouts, musty stuffed animals
with tons of LED & incandescent lights everywhere.

Sprout mostly just stared at all the lights, overwhelmed
by the sheer volume.

A little 80s nostalgia thrown in with the rest in the former petting zoo.

Sprout liked this reindeer & tried to eat it while we waited for our Santa
photo to be printed.