Christmas season began with the decorations. And Sabrina wearing the Christmas stockings.
And the girls playing in the star lights.
This isn't really Christmas related, except that the girls took a break from dancing to Christmas music to play some games in a "cuddly bunch."
Sabrina and Tom got to go to Celia's Kindergarten class to make Gingerbread houses. All the kids were coming up with unique ideas and then the rest of the kids would copy it. Celia came up with adding a doorknob.
For the second year in a row, our ward has hosted the annual Christmas party for all the foster kids in Anchorage. It's a big pizza dinner, the kids are entertained and get to see Santa while the foster parents come "shop" among the presents donated through all the giving trees in town. I helped run the gift room for kids 11+ while Tom partied with all the kids. It's always a super awesome time and this year, I even got to sport the yellow Mormon Helping Hands jersey.
Here's Tom with the girls too shy to see Santa. But they did end up with a stocking and some really nice teddy bears from going close to him.
Celia and Sabrina then attended the Gingerbread Man birthday party of friends of theirs. They got to decorate giant gingerbread men. Celia was, of course, at the table with hers long after the next game had started.
Thanks to the Trader Joe's Christmas cookie kit, I don't have to work hard to keep up Celia's insisted tradition of making cookies for Santa. The girls dove right in decorating (and eating the colored sugar).
On Christmas Eve, we went for our annual ice skate (except me... I took pictures). It was quite cold that day, hovering right around 1 degree, but the girls did a great job. Celia has outdoor recess up here down to ten below (with wind chill). Her recess heartiness really kicked in. Even when I couldn't feel my toes and Sabrina started crying, Celia was still skating around like it was no big deal. This was also Sabrina's very first year on real ice skates.
Celia surprised us all by just heading out herself on her skates. I assumed she would forget since last year or be too scared, but she just got right out on the ice and started skating around.
Taylor and Travis helped out. Taylor helped Sabrina glide on skates while Travis helped Hazel hover over the ice in her snowsuit.
Hazel also got a really classy new sled from L.L.Bean this year and sported it like royalty...
...until the cousins all insisted on hopping in and making her look foolish.
A classy family picture for sure:
Sabrina did manage to stand up by herself a few times, but only on the edges where there was a little snow on top of the ice.
After a cold skate and a warm nap, we headed over to Taylor and Travis' for Christmas Eve soup and a cousin bath. Unlike Thanksgiving, Celia's panties did not end up in the bath this time and the girls had fun eating toys like babies and making it rain with their fingers.
Christmas Morning: Celia had to get all dressed up in her fancy red outfit and skirt and put on a necklace before she would come upstairs to see the stockings. They found the nail polish they had both asked for as well as the movie Despicable Me from Santa.
Nana and Papa gave them these amazing elf slippers and Grandma and Grandpa gave them all the Mardi Gras necklaces from their trip to New Orleans this year. Both really added to this year's "by the Christmas tree" picture.
The girls got some beautiful clothes, and Celia found something hilarious...
For dinner, we hosted Taylor and Travis and Hazel who brought the annual ham. Tom added a Christmas tea ring to his repertoire this year. When we were discussing the menu, he mentioned that "it isn't Christmas without a tea ring." Though joking, I do wonder what the past 7 years have been if not Christmas...
Celia spent all day Christmas building her new Lego Friends bakery. (Boo Boo Ga Ga wanted to be in the picture of the finished product.) She has spent several days since then dismantling and rebuilding said bakery over and over again.
Then we had New Year's. We've continued my family's tradition of having crepes and started the tradition (upon moving to Alaska 4 years ago) of watching the live webcast from New York so we can ring in the New Year's at 8pm and put the girls to bed before 10. This is a winning combination.
We had the Dahle's over as usual and we had enough champagne glasses for the three girls and all the adults except me for the sparkling cider. So, I took one for the team and drank out of the bottle (and quite enjoyed myself).
The girls gorged on crepes and chocolate fondue, held their special glasses until we all said "Happy New Year" and had a really good time.
On New Year's Day, we took down the Christmas decorations. The girls decided to decorate the tree for January. Appropriate decorations for a January tree include shoelaces, necklaces, fancy gloves, and purses.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. (Okay Caleb... let's go.)
1 comment:
Your theory must have been right!
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