Merry Christmas!

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Twas the Night Before Christmas

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Ho, Ho, Ho!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Cookies and Snowflakes

We had a busy day today! Started with Mommy getting ANOTHER shot in her foot, but that's another story. After visiting my doctor, Gregory got his hair cut and notice the fancy blue color?! Kim wanted to spray it red and green for Christmas, but Gregory wanted blue. (He's going for the super hero look)

Pretty sharp, eh?

Here we are making thumbprint cookies and snowballs ~ basically the same recipe, so we did 1/2 and 1/2

Kids decorating the spritz cookies

Aren't they beautiful?? They didn't cook up that way though

Now it was snickerdoodles! We also made chocolate crinkles, chocolate chip and sugar cookies earlier in the month. I've got two bricks of shortbread in the freezer waiting to be baked, but I'm taking a break. We'll dip them in chocolate after they cool. Think they'll taste like Daddy's favorites? Well, they are all vegan so we can all enjoy them as we celebrate the Christmas season!

After a little cleanup we made some snowflakes for the window

Stuck them on contact paper and added some glitter (or lots of glitter!)

They each made three snowflakes to hang. I'll have to take another photo when it isn't so sunny, but it is looking very festive :)

What are we at now? 5 more days...

Taking a break from the holiday rush

Yesterday we decided to take a break from the holidays and just enjoy the sunny weather. First we took the kids to Peet's coffee for scones ~ VEGAN apricot for Bailey and a lemon currant for Gregory! Then we headed over to the Blackhawk plaza to feed the ducks. :)

Here's Gregory showing Daddy his monkey bar skills

The ducks were hungry, but we aren't allowed to feed them bread anymore. We have to buy this special duck food that is really hard for the ducks to pick up

They seem to prefer to eat it from the carton, but that is a little scary so we went back to tossing it in the water.

It was nice to just get out and not rush around and we really had perfect weather to just hang out.

Bailey's Winter Sing

This afternoon Bailey entertained us with her 1st Grade Winter Sing! 30 minutes of song, witty banter, poetry and bells. So cute!

Cocoa and a Lights!

Last night after dinner the kids made hot cocoa, we bundled up and hopped in the car to tour our favorite Christmas neighborhood!

Here's a photo of our penguins. Gregory put them together on Saturday and Daddy hooked them up to our remote

Here are the kiddies waiting for Daddy to pick up a cup of coffee

I think next weekend is when all the homes have the luminaries on the streets and all the houses are lit so we'll be making another trip soon! Yeah! We LOVE looking at Christmas lights!

Snowmen Pumpkins?

We were just about to toss our pumpkins, but last night I saw the cutest snowman project so I went to dig them out of the garden can this morning (they were on top)

After school we painted them white

Today was Polar Express day at Gregory's school so he got to wear PJs all day!

Paint the stem black

Added some black and orange fabric to make a face and a red felt scarf. So cute!

On a cold windy night...

Look what we found when we woke up this morning...

What a mess

One of our trees snapped in half (just missing out roof line!)

Guess we don't have to worry about having the tree guy prune this one.

Looks like we may have lost part of this plant too

Well, it is still quite windy. Cross your fingers we don't lose another one!

The Ceramic Pumpkin

Each year at Golden View the art teacher has a special ceramic project. In first grade, the kids get to make a ceramic pumpkin.

Here's Bailey with her handmade pumpkin

Here's a close-up!

Hmmm, I wonder what next year's project will be??

The Little Visitor ~ Stuffs

While we were at Bachan and Grandpa's house, Bailey lost her tooth...Last night she placed it in her tooth box and look what she found this morning!

The tooth fairy filled her tooth box with quarters! She was just thrilled!

Gregory wanted to share his blue tongue

Here she is with her treasure!

Now, they are working on making more ornaments for our tree

We're taking it easy today...Tomorrow is back to school

Thanksgiving in LA

On Tuesday morning we packed up our van and drove down to beautiful southern California! (And it was actually pretty nice this time ~ we usually bring RAIN!) We had a short visit, but filled it with lots of fun times. We even spent a day at Disneyland! We've never seen the Christmas decorations at the park so this time we decided to take the kids for a day and check things out. We got there at 8am when it opened and left around 5pm. Squeezed in about 14 rides, brunch, parade and even some just sitting on a bench resting time! (Eating allergy free POPCORN!) We had dinner at the Storybook Cafe in downtown Disney and drove on back to the hotel for some much needed rest...

Thanksgiving dinner was at the Taketomo's house. Auntie Lynn and Bachan cooked up a storm. We ate, chatted, crafted, played games and just had a really great time! (Lauren got me hooked on a new card game! Actually Gregory loved it too. It's called SLAP. I think I'm gonna teach her Pounce next time! :))

[Insert a little reminder tip - DO NOT stay at the Doubletree in Commerce the day before BLACK FRIDAY! The Citadel outlets have a HUGE event that starts Thanksgiving night. UGH!]

We drove home Friday night after dinner. Gregory wanted to stay another day, but I think we are all very happy to be home! Vacations are fun, but it sure is always nice to crawl into my own bed!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

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Playdate with The Kochis!

Today Megumi, Derek and Blake came over for a very fun playdate!

Here's Blake!

Gregory and Derek having fun in the sponge pit

Bailey joining in on the fun

Another shot of Derek

And here's Gregory

We had a great time playing at Super Franks! Can't wait for them to come again. Gregory and Derek already have their next playdate planned out so hopefully we will see each other very soon!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like....

Now what in the world did Daddy drag in from the garage?? :)

Last year we had our tree up for only 3 days so this year we are making up for it!

Bailey primping the branches

Working on an "ornament idea" they had while waiting for Daddy to bring in the ornament boxes (notice the Christmas quilt they are working on?! I finally finished it Friday night!)

Setting up the Christmas tree always is one of my favorite days of the year! I LOVE IT!

And so does the rest of the family!

Daddy working on the top

(Oh gee, guess I better color my hair tomorrow! )

Sweets

Stockings are hung...

Our little sweeties

I even set up our Disney Christmas village this year! NO more playing ball in the house!

Our 2011 tree...isn't it just beautiful!? I love it!