Christmas, and Lila can count!

Bear with me as we go through the Mother of all Christmas re-caps. The grandparents like to see a lot of photos, okay?

First of all, cookies. I'm new to the whole baking thing. Tim and I had the same bag of sugar for 6 years. But lately, I'm baking like a... oh crap, like a MOM. This year I made a ton of things. Rum balls, Egg Nog cookies, sugar cookies, and mint chip brownies. The one thing I still can't figure out, is why people start baking 3 weeks before Christmas. I don't care if you freeze the cookies - they're still going to be obviously old cookies, aren't they? I could be wrong - I am new at this. But to be safe, I made all of mine 1 week to 2 days before Christmas. Mmm, they were good. And of course it was great to have help.

Decorating the cookies.


Elsa and her super fake, hilarious Top Model pose! At least she's looking at the camera again.


Christmas Eve day. We dressed the kids in matching sweaters and headed to my parents house for a lovely brunch.

The matching sweaters. Lila is wearing Elsa's old Christmas outfit. I happened to find the same sweater in Elsa's size at the thrift store for $1. Score.


Lila loved this present before it was even opened. "I climb!"


Looking festive.


Elsa helped pass out the presents.


Christmas Eve. Headed to Tim's parents house for another nice gathering with family and friends.
Elsa opening presents.


Hey, who cares about these two?!


The kids calm down for awhile and watch Shirley Temple in grandma and grandpa's bedroom.


They somehow stayed up until 10 pm. It was great until about 10 am the next day, when it was obvious they were very out of sorts. Still, they had a great Christmas morning. Tim left a note that Santa had written, while I had the more difficult task of leaving convincing cookie crumbs.


Our job done, we ran around outside in celebration, taking photos of the pretty snowstorm.


Up bright and early.


The meaning of Christmas caught on camera - an unprompted hug!


I guess we don't have many photos of the kids opening their presents. They all turned out pretty blurry, which was fitting because it was a blur. All in all, a great Christmas. Hope everyone else had a great one, too.

Yesterday Elsa found my stash of stickers and stuck them all over the couch. Thanks to teacher Sherry, her preschool teacher, she said,"Should we count them?" So she did. Then to my surprise, so did Lila!

Winter Times

Today we tried to beat the winter blues (the first official day of winter. Do I laugh or cry?) by making homemade slime out of corn starch and water. They make it at Elsa's school all the time. You can roll it into a ball and smash it in your hands and it feels powdery and solid. The second you stop moving it, it melts onto your skin. Slime! The kids had fun with it for awhile.


Lila is yelling,"Sliiime!"


We've been trying to get outside no matter how cold it is. So far it seems like more hassle than it's worth. After getting everyone dressed, we're almost out the door and it's too late. There's Lila, having a tantrum on the floor from having to wait so long. We took the kids on the sled one time around the yard, and they were already asking to go in.


About a week later, after the temp had risen into the 20's, I thought it would be a good idea to bundle the kids up myself and take them outside to feed the birds. They got their own little cups to sprinkle bird seed with, and we even made a special bird treat out of toast, PB, and seeds to hang outside. How lovely! How fun! But Lila couldn't figure out how to hold the cup with her big mittens on. She was mad. Elsa dumped a few cups full on the ground and was done. She wanted to walk around the yard but the snow was too deep for her. Good times. Good thing there's still sledding and making snowmen.

Oops!




Toast covered with peanut butter and bird seed. This thing was gone - string and all - an hour later.


Winter activities also include amusing myself and the kids with pancakes. Hippo!


Last weekend we put the tree up. The kids liked helping with the decorations.


I knew it. Lila smashed about 4 of these on purpose, no remorse. Elsa would've been bawling.


Our house at Christmas time.


Last and definitely the cutest thing ever, here's Lila singing part of Jingle Bells. I didn't get the whole thing, it's just:
"is to ride on a one horse open sleigh, hey!"


It's a cryin' shame I didn't get her singing the beginning. "Jingle all the way" is "Jimmo aw da wain". Reminds me of this classic 'Buckwheat Sings' episode of SNL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHiZ15x6Vt4

Merry Christmas everyone!

Fun with Santa

Today we hit the mall and saw Santa. Elsa was pumped. She said,"I want to see the fake Santa." We were a little freaked out, but then she explained that the Grinch is a fake Santa. Ahhh, of course. After that was cleared up, I told her we were going to visit the real Santa: the one at Maplewood Mall. We finally arrived in the parking lot and she said,"Are we at the North Pole?" No, but it sure felt like it. It's freezing! Winter is here.

Since it's Friday, the line was short. The kids enjoyed watching Santa taking pictures with other kids. Lila is yelling,"Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi Santa! Hi!"



She approaches him and waves and smiles. Elsa gets on his lap. Then we put Lila on his lap and walk a few short feet away.


And then...


She didn't like that we walked away and left her on some dude's lap - no matter that the dude was Santa. After the photos, she was smiling and waving at him again.

After the Santa experience, we had to take a ride on the carousel. They both loved it.


The kids are really getting into Christmas songs. Luckily, they have Tim, who happily plays songs on piano and guitar throughout the house everyday. They decided to hang out in the guitar case and try it out for themselves.


Tomorrow we put up the tree. I have serious doubts about Lila being able to keep away from the ornaments. To be continued...