Merry Christmas Card

Letters to Santa

I just wanted to share the girls' letters to Santa this year.  It's the first time they've wanted to do that, so it was interesting to see what would happen.  Celia came home from school one day and decided she should write a letter to Santa.  When I asked her what she was going to ask him for, she answered "bunny slippers!"  It was pretty hilarious and sounded like someone had told her that is what you ask for.  After we talked about it for a bit and what she really wanted, she decided what she really wanted was some pink nail polish. Celia's handwriting has improved markedly since starting school.

Sabrina had to get in on the action as well to write a letter to Santa.  She drew the front first and I asked her if it was a picture of what she wanted for Christmas.  "No.  It's a ghost.  For Santa.  I drew Santa a ghost."  Then, after seeing Celia's (and getting distracted again making handprints), Sabrina decided she wanted purple nail polish and drew that as well.  

And to add a little Family History to this blog, here's a Santa letter from one of my ancestors written in 1926.  The kid thought practically with a hoe, a rake, and a shovel.  But then he couldn't decide what else he liked best.  (Also, it was written on Christmas Eve... not giving Santa much time now, are we?)

In plain text (as far as we can tell):

Dear Santa Claus

December 24, 

1926

I want a hoe, rake, 

and a shovel

and that's all

best I like these things

I want a bank

best and I like a sand
crane and a dump truck
I like a freight car best
bring them to me
I like a caboose best

D.C. Memorial Walk

On one day during our trip to Washington, D.C., we took a long walk around the major monuments around town. We started at the Jefferson Memorial. From there we also had a good view of the Washington Monument across the tidal basin. (Since it's under renovation, we didn't actually make a stop there.)

Next stop was the FDR Memorial, where the girls liked the big doggie and waited in the unemployment line.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial was Celia's favorite, though we didn't really get a picture of her favorite part, which was the passageway between two stone "mountains" that you can only partially see here behind the statue of Dr. King.

We happened upon the Korean War Memorial at just the right time. Just as we got there, a Korean military battalion walked in formation into the memorial and took a moment of silence.

Next up was the Lincoln Memorial, where we took a break for lunch.

Sabrina spent a while tracing names with her finger at the Vietnam War Memorial.

And here's Celia striking a glamorous pose at the World War II Memorial.

On the walk back to the car there were police blocking traffic along one of the streets, and the officer at the crosswalk told us the President was going to drive by. We'll have to take his word for it that the President was actually in one of the couple dozen vehicles that came zooming past a few minutes later.

Celia Art: Mostly Fairies

(Another vacation post hiatus.  Tom and I are both trying to catch up on the blog at the same time.  Is anyone getting confused yet?)

In November, Celia was really into the Rainbow Magic book series.  Every book is the same except it's about a different fairy.  We read the party fairy series (decoration fairy, cake fairy, etc), the fun day fairies (each one is in charge of a different day of the week), the dance fairy series (jazz fairy, etc.), and a few of the rainbow fairies (each one is a different color).  So, Celia also came home everyday with a picture of fairies.  Though the series does have a holiday series, we never read them, so these are all Celia's invention.

The Christmas and Halloween Fairies

The New Year's Fairy

The Valentine's Day Fairy

The Thanksgiving Fairy

The St. Patrick's Day Fairy

The Veteran's Day Fairy

Then, on Sunday, Celia drew another fairy for the Holidays.  This one checks the calendar and sees what holiday is coming up next.  She has 42 sparkles.  Tom commented: "She's created so many fairies, she had to create a secretary fairy."  The secretary fairy is named Ruby Angelina.  She goes by both names because the red fairy below is also named Ruby and they don't want to get confused.

Then Celia did her own rendition of each of the rainbow fairies.  She knew the red one's name was Ruby. Toward the end of the rainbow fairy series, she started drawing rainbows of the ones she had already done and then adding check boxes to keep them all straight since she only did one drawing a day at school.  

The only non-fairy pictures that came home in November were school assignments were she was drawing based on a prompt.

Fall, Farm, and the Temple

One day while we were in Maryland, we took the kids out to the Homestead Farm. We drove for a little while until we got to an old country road, the type that is wide enough for two lanes but is only paved along the center track. We wanted to have something of a harvest experience, so the kids could see where their apples, pumpkins, and the like come from. It was a little drizzly when we first got there but the kids didn't mind.

After posing with the pumpkins we found the big pile of hay that was a hit with everyone.

After throwing it around a bit and jumping off the pile several times, Sabrina proceeded to bury herself in the hay.

Celia followed suit.

Then they all very graciously helped Juliet bury herself in the hay to make sure she didn't feel left out.

Afterwards we took a walk through the apple orchards. The kids wished they could eat the apples right off the trees, though they were a little put off by the vinegary smell of all the fallen apples.

As usual we had to take pictures in the cutouts.

They also had large, elevated pathways for the goats to walk from one pen to another. We enjoyed watching them walk around as we ate lunch.

On the way back from the farm we stopped at the Washington, D.C. Temple and walked around the temple grounds.

One of their favorite things was the miniature temple inside the visitor's center.