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We made our way to Greenway Farms to get our Christmas tree this year. Molly is pointing to our pick and giving us a thumbs up. Leah is trying her best to give two thumbs up (so cute).

This was a cut-your-own tree farm, so Chad cut the tree down before lugging it up toward our car.

After dinner, we worked on decorating the tree. Nice antlers, Molly!

While decorating the tree, we listened to the score from The Nutcracker. Leah had no interest in putting ornaments on the tree, but instead just wanted to dance with this nutcracker ornament. She loved it and was happy as a clam, other than getting annoyed that we kept interrupting her to ask if she wanted to put an ornament on the tree.

Chad acted as a ladder to prevent all the ornaments from ending up on the bottom of the tree.

Molly did great putting ornaments on the tree, but during certain scenes of the score from The Nutcracker, she had to take a break to dance with a nutcracker ornament like her little sister.

After everything else was done, Leah finally agreed to hang her nutcracker ornament on the tree. This was the only ornament she hung.

The tree, decorated and lit.

We took the girls ice skating for the first time Monday afternoon at the Columbia Ice Rink. Leah was not a fan and only lasted a minute on the ice, but Molly had a great time.

Molly and Chad skated around like this the entire time. They had little walkers for kids, but Molly wanted nothing to do with them. So, instead, Chad got a good workout of skating and holding up a kid as she wobbled and occasionally kicked one of his feet out from under him.

Most of the time, Molly wanted to go "a little fast," which meant a good pace but not as fast as the real skaters were going. She loved it, and kept pushing Chad to speed up every time he slowed a bit.

We couldn't make the annual Gingerbread House Party this year, but we were the lucky recipients of a "take home party" instead. The girls had a great time decorating their gingerbread houses. And yes, that's icing on Molly's nose.

Carefully placing icing on the perfect spot!

The finished houses. Molly did hers pretty much entirely on her own. Leah had a bit of assistance.

We got back from Gatlinburg with only a couple hours to spare before Molly headed off to her first performance of the Nutcracker with the Columbia Chamber Ballet. Here she is in her costume for the Children's March (along with her makeup artist and littlest fan).

Dancing in the Children's March.

Molly's other scene is the Battle scene, in which she is one of the little mice.

Leah loved the performance (when Molly was on stage and when she wasn't). She was glued to it, and occasionally hopped out of her chair to mimic the dancers on stage.

Aunt EA was nice enough to hang with Leah during the performance while Chad was in back filming. Leah did occasionally take a break from watching the dancers to wave to Molly on the sidelines.

Hooray for the first performance!

One down, six more to go! If you'd like to see Molly perform, here is her schedule. I know she'd love to see you! And if you can't make one, check out the video of her first Nutcracker performance.

Our last morning in Gatlinburg a few of us headed to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. It was literally down the hill from our lodge, so we decided to check it out. Molly and this fish appear to be seeing eye to eye.

Emmie and Leah enjoyed watching the seahorses.

This aquarium had a long tunnel with a slow moving walkway that allowed you to go under the sea. The tunnel was small enough that you really felt like you were right next to the animals.

Molly and Leah wanted nothing to do with these guys, but Emmie was up for petting this horseshoe crab.

The aquarium was full of little tunnels you could crawl in to get up close and personal with the undersea life.

Our last stop was to see the penguins, up close and personal.

Since we won't see my family in December, we posed for our family Christmas photo Friday morning.

We then headed inside and exchanged gifts with G'Mom, Grampa, Uncle J, Aunt 'Chelle, and Emmie. Molly is shocked by these socks.

She was also very excited to get a Belle doll.

Chad sometimes sticks a little Lego man on his camera to give the girls something to focus on. After using it for the pictures, Leah wanted to play with it. Even after getting a bunch of Christmas presents, she kept coming back to playing with the Lego man.

I love this picture of Leah opening her ornament from Grampa.

Emmie had to check hers out from all angles.

After the gift giving had concluded, Leah took a minute to teach Grampa a bit about how to use the iPad.

We headed to Gatlinburg, TN to gather with the Batson extended family for Thanksgiving. We arrived on G'mom's birthday, so we had to celebrate. Here G'mom is receiving her fantastic birthday hat Aunt 'Chelle made for her.

The morning of Thanksgiving we hiked up a mountain to see a waterfall (and burn some calories before the feast!).

Molly got a lot of extra time with G'mom and Grampa since we allowed her to have "special" days with no naps.

The girls are still not fond of big or active dogs, but Max is neither of these. Max enjoyed sitting quietly on Dot's lap, and Leah thought that made him the perfect dog to pet.

The house we rented had a pool table, which was lots of fun for adult and child alike.

The Batson clan (well, almost all of us).

The girls raked in a lot of candy at Halloween, but we didn't keep it all. We decided to keep a bit, and donate the rest to send to soldiers overseas. The girls picked out 15 pieces of candy each to keep for themselves.

Our new dentist's office participates in the Halloween Candy Buy Back program and was collecting candy to send off. Here the girls are presenting their stash.

Every time we talked about sending candy to the soldiers, Molly would call them knights instead. I thought this was adorable. The dentist's office had cards for the girls to color to send with the candy, so of course Molly and Leah thought it was appropriate to put a castle on the card (it was going to the knights, after all).

Because they donated more than 1 pound of candy each, the dentist's office rewarded them with a silver dollar, a new toothbrush and a few Halloween trinkets including these glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth. This is Molly being scary.

Molly's class gave a show for the parents during their Halloween party, including a costume parade.

Grams made the girls these Halloween dresses. Leah wasn't sure about hers, but Molly wore hers 4 days in a row after receiving it.

This is what happens when Molly gives Daddy bunny ears behind the camera.

On Halloween, our first stop was to trick-or-treat at Grams and Pop's house.

Molly is dressed as a princess (Cinderella to be precise) and Leah is a pea. So, we had The Princess and the Pea.

I made Leah's costume. Unfortunately, Leah repeated "I don't yike it" over and over while crying when we tried to put it on. Eventually, we talked her into donning it by emphasizing that it would lead to candy.

Grams and Pop are known for giving out full-size candy bars, and Leah picked a Kit Kat bar. She loved getting it, and kept carrying it around exclaiming "It's my Kit Kat" to us. After starting in a bad mood, the Kit Kat was what turned her mood around.

We then headed to Keira and Maya's house to do some trick-or-treating with them and Simon and Matilda. Here are all the kids ready to go.

Molly's now an expert trick-or-treater, so she managed pretty much on her own.

Leah needed a little help, but did great and lasted the whole time (though she did dump her candy in Daddy's backpack half way through to lighten the load).

Lined up and waiting.

Despite usually saying I don't do it, Mommy is capable of carrying on shoulders. Leah is clearly enjoying the ride and her animal crackers snack.

The pea costume was stuffed well, which meant Leah sometimes lost the bottom part of her face in it.

After we got back, Matilda played calmly with a tea cup.

I'm sure that's what all the kids are doing, right…

maybe not. The older kids were pretty wound up (as you might expect).

As the season has changed, we've had more indoor play. Leah's jamming and dancing, with the hat on backwards and Molly's boots on the wrong feet. Note that this was not staged at all, but rather just what Leah decided to do (which is why the hat is pulled down so far).

Foam stickers provide lots of fun and creative stories.

So, Leah joined in as well.

After the stickers were applied, the girls moved from the table to the counter to draw in some more details.

Molly's really enjoying her science kit. It clearly takes a lot of concentration when mixing colors in a petri dish using droppers.