Festival of Trees

Whew! Things have been getting a little busy here. I'm still not sure where the last few weeks went. Wasn't Thanksgiving just yesterday (and I'm talking about Canada's Turkey Day in October!)? Anyway, last weekend just added to the business when we decided to pack in a couple of Christmas activities. I love Christmas activities! We rode the LRT (subway) to the Shaw Centre to see the Festival of Trees. They had been talking this event up on the radio and we were curious to see what it was all about.

Claire liked the Polar Bear display.

The festival had a lot going on. We decided to try letting Claire sit on Santa's lap first. A lady in the lobby gave us free tickets, so her generosity saved us four dollars! Anyway, Claire made it all the way to the front of the line before she starting screaming bloody murder. In the end, we got a picture of her on MY lap. Of course, now that it is all over she likes Santa because he gave her a candy cane! If you ask her what she wants from Santa, she will now say, "candy!"
After that trauma we went to the children's hospital area. There was a bunch of different learning activities here. Claire didn't understand most of them, but I was impressed with what the area had to offer. There was listening to your heartbeat, giving Elmo an IV, looking at xrays, sewing a teddy bear up, and getting a fake glitter cast on your finger.

Look at my fake glitter cast!

She walked around just like that until she realized the cast slides off. It was pretty funny!

Sewing up a teddy bear.

Next, we went to get hot chocolate and a cookie for a dollar. My favorite part! Sometimes it is nice to have a toddler. Claire didn't want her hot chocolate, so I got extra!
We watched some dancers perform and then looked at a few of the Christmas trees.

This one was covered in butterflies!

I really liked this glass tree!

Sorry about the terrible pictures on this post. My camera hates dim lighting. Anyway, before we left we attempted to get a family picture. Thank you to our friend who got nominated for the job!

I think we will be going back to the festival of trees again next year. It was a lot of fun!