Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Christmas is not celebrated in Italy with as much emphasis as it is in America. We do feel blessed, though, to live in a place where Christmas is celebrated and there are some really fun options available to celebrate as a family. The other night, we took Colton to the Florence Noel market. The actual market part was pretty strange, but there were so many great things for kids to do there! Colton was thrilled because we left the stroller in the car and let him walk on his own the whole time. You could tell he felt so special. We had a great time!

The market was held in an old train station building. The decorations outside were beautiful. Plus, there was fake snow (bubbles) falling!

Inside the market was very pretty, too. So many lights and decorations!

The tables in front of the evergreen forest were stacked with papers and markers so the kids could write Santa Christmas letters.

It was hard to keep C in one place long enough to get a picture with him. :)

Colton was not a fan of Babbo Natale (the Italian name for Santa) this year. I'm not too surprised since he has seemed to finally be showing some separation anxiety in the past month or so. We stopped by Santa's area first but all Colton would do is cling to me.

I tried to put him on Santa's lap but it just wasn't going to happen...

This is the closest we came to a picture with Santa this year. Ha!

Just beyond Santa's area was an awesome play area for kids up to 8-years-old. First, Colton tried this ball pit. He couldn't move very well in there and wasn't a huge fan.

But then we tried this bounce house. It took Colton a little while to warm up to the idea of jumping (and falling) around a bunch of other kids, but once he did we could not get him out of it! He had the best time!

Ross shared a cannoli (cannolo here in Italy - meaning just one cannoli) with Colton. I wish I could have gotten a picture of him taking a bite of it since, well, it's just not your typical American kid snack. But all I got was this pic of him chewing. :)

Playing with other kids at a craft table.

Even though there were so many fun things set up for him, one of the activities Colton enjoyed most was running up and down this little ramp. It's the simple things, right?

On the way out, we tried to get Colton to go tell Santa "bye-bye." He still wasn't interested in sitting in his lap, but he did give him a high five.

This is what we got when we asked Colton to give Santa a hug. :)

Once again, Ross and I had so much fun watching Colton enjoy some of the fun parts of the Christmas season. It is a joy to celebrate this holiday as we get to see it anew through the eyes of a two-year-old! I know it will only get more fun as the years go on.

For those of you who are interested, here's a little video of our jumping bean enjoying the bounce house...

And a short video of how he liked to get out of the bounce house (usually just so he could turn around and go right back in). My child has no fear...