Decorations and shampooed arms

Cora likes our Christmas tree. We've always had real trees, but this year a spectacular Black Friday deal at Home Depot enticed us into the fake tree world - $50 for a tree that was normally $200. Now, even in the years that we spend several days prior to Christmas in England, we can put up a tree.
Next, you can see our nice, simple Christmas lights and wreath on our house. We were fortunate in that a prior owner had installed hooks, many of which Stace was able to use, so putting them up was rather easy. It's a nice treat to have a house to light up for the first time, and a neighborhood of our own to walk around at night, admiring the displays. (Amusingly, Cora is scared of a lot of the decorations. Big blow-up snowmen? "All done! All done!" Animatronic waving Santas? "All done! All done!" She also was "done" with the cutesy snowman I put on our hearth and Stace's Burt Rutan bobblehead doll and England garden gnome.)
Cora is definitely speaking more words, trying out new words, and stringing words together. Stace has taught her "See ya, mate" and "Alright, mate," so she will fit in with the Somerset tots when we visit in a couple of weeks. Also, she can fill in the blank when you're counting (I say "1, 2, 3" and pause, and she'll say "4"), and with certain words from very familiar stories, even words she doesn't normally use.
So, for a couple of Cora stories. Sometimes when I can't find her in the house (it's SO big, 1,425 square feet might as well be an 8,000 square foot mansion for us!), I've learned to look in our shower. She likes to dig her fingers around the outside of our shampoo bottles, and wipe it on her arm - today, I caught her putting it on her sweatshirt sleeve. She calls it soap, and acts like it's a perfectly natural, reasonable activity. She also will open each bottle of body wash and shampoo and stick it to her nose, getting a good whiff. Additionally, she likes to do this with the shower door closed. I think she thinks she is hiding. (Hiding is fun for her these days - several times I will go into her bedroom after she's been asleep, and though she was calling for me a moment earlier, when I enter she is silent and hiding under her blanket or pillow.)
The photo with Elmo in the collectible car was not a set up. Well, I asked her to stand there and smile, but she put Elmo in the driver's seat and was pushing the car around, on her own. Stace was a bit worried when he saw the photo, as he got it as a gift some 15 years ago.
Lastly, a preview for those of you still hoping I'll show more details of the house... We made a trip to IKEA this weekend for some odds and ends, and furniture, which Cora helped Stace assemble (when she wasn't drawing on it with the pencil, dumping his container of tiny parts, or throwing the wood glue). I've been busy working on getting the rooms in better working order before photographing them for public consumption. This week I should be ready to post them.