Preparations for the arrival of Santa begins!
On the evening of the 23rd, we broke out the Kitchen Aid and mixed up a batch of cookie dough.
There was probably more tasting being done than mixing, but we got the job done.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, the cooking making extravaganza continued.
We rolled it . . .
. . . and pat it . . .
. . . and marked it with all kinds of Christmas goodness.
I was up burning the midnight oil for several nights last week. It’s important to me to give my girls something special to wear on the Sunday prior to Christmas. Even though I thought that I had completed the hard part of my task when I had finally finished the last stitch, I was mistaken. The challenge was yet to come. After getting everyone dressed and ready for church Sunday morning, I decided to take some pictures of the girls. Getting those two to stand next to each other, look in the same direction, and smile at the same time was near impossible.
Despite the challenges, I love the pictures we got . . . they are of our beautiful girls.
The holidays are in full swing and we have been enjoying all kinds of festivities. Here Ella is singing with the primary at our ward’s Christmas party.
Addi loved the production so much, she joined in the singing too. Only she is singing patty-cake – here you see her “roll it and roll it . . . “
What kind of Christmas party would it be without a visit from the big man himself?
Impressively enough, Addi sat on his lap too!
Another enjoyable evening we share together is a night in Corvallis at a Nativity exhibit. It is held at the LDS Stake Center there and is truly visually stunning and musically uplifting. In recent years, they have added a children’s room where the little ones can make Christmas ornaments, color Christmas scenes, dress up in nativity costumes and watch a nativity puppet show. All of us absolutely love this evening out.
We hope your Christmas season is filled with wonderful memories too.
Merry Christmas!
I have been keeping Addi’s hair short, to a length just below her ears. But time has gotten away from me and her hair has grown out a bit.
I smile with a sigh now as a tear rolls down my cheek.
Has anyone else noticed how quickly retailers push Christmas on us? It’s seems to come earlier and earlier every year. I used to get silently frustrated with this marketing scheme . . . until now. I’ve decided that if there is a holiday worth coming early, it’s Christmas. Now I know that the retailers motivation is $$$, but we can simply enjoy the spirit of the holiday. I pulled my Christmas music out a few days ago with this thought in mind. How better to internalize Christmas spirit than to begin with showing thankfulness?
May you all have a joyous holiday season.
Because Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, the festivities lasted for days. We kicked off the festivities on Thursday with the preschool parade. But before we get to the activities, let’s see the all important process of dressing up.
For some reason, my girls choose to be characters that require most of our attention to be on the hair. Honestly, I can’t complain. I love doing their hair.
Ella became the story-book character Ella the Rose Fairy. An illustration of the character is here for you to see. Addi became a Boise State cheerleader. Her hair was less of a project than Ella’s. My time was consumed here in making the coordinating hair pom poms.
(Before)
Love those silky waves!
Ella’s inspiration
(After)
Now for the preschool parade. Things move very quickly here, as evidence in the quality of my snapshots. I guess it makes you feel like you were there.
There she goes.
Ooops, there she goes again.
Aaahhhh, I almost caught her that time.
There she is!
Now for the activities and snacks!
The weekend continued with our ward’s Harvest Festival on Saturday. It didn’t take Addi long to learn what she needed to be doing.
Ella always loves to go to the face painting booth. It’s to bad that this activity was in the evening, because it was heartbreaking to her to have to have her beautiful rainbow washed off.
Add is demonstrating the proper way to do the candy walk – you have to have a piece of candy in your mouth as you walk. : )
My beautiful girls . . .
. . .and their beautiful smiles.
On Sunday, the girls loved handing out treats to all the visitors that knocked on our door. What a fun weekend.
My very happy preschooler.
I was able to come on this adventure with my sweet girl.
Are there any pumpkins left for us?
Ready . . . Set . . . GO!
Several minutes and several pumpkins later, Ella had chosen the perfect ones for her and me.
