Merry Christmas to all...

Merry Christmas everyone!  We spent the holidays in Portland this year, but missed spending time with our families back in the midwest.  We had fun creating some new traditions this year though too.   We went to Christmas Eve mass, which was a candlelight service, and very beautiful.  Emma thought it was pretty neat that she got to hold fire!  We had yummy Chinese take out for dinner, which left us plenty of time to enjoy watching a Christmas movie together before we headed to bed and awaited Santa's arrival.  Emma was thrilled to find the skate board that Santa left for her on Christmas morning...it was just what she wanted.  Emma has enjoyed sporting her new goggles too--she wore them to school one day, and she said the other kids thought they looked silly, but when she looked at herself in the mirror, she said they were wrong, because she looked good!  I have to agree my dear...everything looks good on a confident girl!  Emma painted a mug and made a card for her daddy this year.  She was super excited to give him the gift...saying "he is just going to love this", as she was creating her masterpieces.

On Christmas afternoon, we enjoyed the company of good friends, ate a delicious meal, visited, and played a little Blokus.  It was a lovely day.

Big sister duties...

Emma is getting ready to welcome her little sis next month... making her cards at school, and picking out some of her toys that she thinks her baby sister will like.  She thought it was also a good idea to try out the ol' crib to make sure everything was in good working order for her new roomie!  Emma gave the crib her stamp of approval, however, I'm going to have to veto all the "friends" in the crib once the baby takes up residence there.

Butter fingers (of the peanut variety)

Who knew making peanut butter balls would be this messy!  We learned Grammy's secret a little too late...refrigerate the peanut butter ball mixture before trying to roll it into balls.  There's always next year, but this years experience was "finger lickin' good" too!

Holiday Train

The holiday train was a big hit.  Santa on the other hand...not so much!  He did leave the kids with a candy cane though, so that seemed to make up for the unpleasantness of sitting so close to the big guy!  The finale came when we got to watch the big steam engine (all decorated in lights) take off.  It was LOUD!!!

Gingerbread Men

Cash and Emma got their creativity on, and decked out their gingerbread men with all the candy they could get their hands on (except for the candies that made it into their mouths first)!

Gingerbread houses

Emma's friend Michaela came for a long overdue visit.  They had a grand time playing dress-up, "playing" with Darby, and decorating gingerbread houses.  The girls did an excellent job, and I foresee careers in the pastry business in their future!