December was filled with many activities that will turn into fond memories. Here are some of them.
(Somehow what daddy did with the leaves the day before didn't quite translate to snow)
(blast that cumbersome nose - she could have been a full centimeter closer to the action without it)
Darling Live Puppet Show
Yeah, we had fun in December. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
The First Snow Storm
(Somehow what daddy did with the leaves the day before didn't quite translate to snow)Cousin Birthdays (Happy Birthday Jonah and Christian too - sorry no pictures of the later)
General Merry Cousin silliness (I stole these pics Maren. Thanks)
Making messes with Cousins that were just funny enough to keep them out of serious trouble.
School Plays (One of these things is not like the others)
This is the Place Park.
The highlight of the evening, a mesmerizing train set. We really could have been done after this without ever having had to go out in the cold.
(blast that cumbersome nose - she could have been a full centimeter closer to the action without it) Cottages full of activities.
Darling Live Puppet Show
Live Nativity. The poor little sheep was so cold he just stood there frozen, which was sad but also convenient for the little ones to get a chance to actually touch him.
Alex was a little nervous about the Santa who suggested that I sit on his lap with her. Bad move. He didn't know he was getting a pregnant lady with a wiggly child who doesn't fit on my lap anymore anyway. I fear we crushed him. Sorry Santa.
We did see one other Santa previous to this one. Alex wouldn't sit on his lap either so once again I got the pleasure. He was quite delightful and was even able to predict the gender and due date (within a few days) of our new addition. Impressive. It was only when he started rattling off our social security numbers, birthdays, and current mailing address that we got a little nervous and left. However, we did get a candy cane out of it.
The Christmas Eve Nativity.
Alex was a shepherd. She made her appearance choking on a wad of paper which she promptly threw up in the middle of the floor upon making her entrance. Unphased she continued on with her role, because the show must go on. She then began to improvise on the part of the "reverent" shepherd by jumping up and down on the couch, and ended the scene by receiving an accidental whack to the head from a neighboring shepherd followed by a few tears. Perfect. Fortunately with a little studio magic you end up with a bunch of perfect angels.
Christmas morning
Sporting the fancy new pajamas that Grandma made was only the beginning of the magic. With each present there was a cry of "What's this?!!!" And with the assortment of Cars, Toy Story, and Princess paraphernalia, she couldn't have been happier.
I got a surprise on Christmas as well. Lance got me a fridge!!!! Our old fridge had been leaking water since we moved into the house and recently the multiple strategically place drainage cups were not handling the load, and our fruits and vegetables would frequently end up swimming in pools of water. To present the gift, Lance built a life size replica of the fridge out of cardboard, complete with handles and working doors, which he wrapped up and placed in the living room when I left for a minute. Sneaky devil. I love it!! And so do my fruits and veggies.
Our first trip to the movie theatre.
The Feature Presentation was "Tangled", to which Alex went appropriately dressed as a princess and carrying two of the Princess figurines she got for Christmas.
And what trip to the movies would be complete without a trip to the video arcade. Weird, right? Why does a place whose sole purpose is entertainment need to feature another form of amusement. Do we really need to have back up entertainment in the event that we should have to wait for the other entertainment to start to entertain us so that we might be constantly entertained. Really? Nevertheless.
Alex's First Haircut.
Haircuts are awesome when you get to drive a pink car, wear a cheetah print aprin, and watch Rapunzel (cute pun) while eating a sucker. Who wouldn't hold still. I'm thinking of switching hairdressers.
The end result.
Princess Twirling
Alex likes to twirl. Pretty pink dress courtesy of Gma Beckstrand for Christmas. Preferred musical stylings consist of tracks from Shrek 2. We already have our tryout scheduled for "America's Got Talent".
New Year's Eve Gingerbread House Decorating.
Alex was much more interested in tasting rather than actually decorating, which is why you may notice that the majority of the candy that actually made it onto her house is slightly wet.
legal fireworks. . .
and not so legal fireworks
Yeah, we had fun in December. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
