Update through the Holidays

These are random pictures from the holiday season. Mostly just pictures and captions. So, here we go:

Sabrina and I went to the Children's Museum every week this fall. Caleb enjoyed the fun mirrors.

We had a pretty good fall harvest of potatoes, parsnips, and carrots. The carrots were so beautiful. Not pictured are the greens and rhubarb we enjoyed throughout the summer.

I got out of the shower one day to find Tom having a party with Caleb and Sabrina.

This is also at the museum. They had a really cool Lego exhibit for a few months. We went for Family Home Evening one week and built this cool Lego guy. 

The week before Thanksgiving, we said farewell to our only Alaskan relatives who moved to Oregon. Caleb and Hazel shared a binky moment in the final days. We miss them dearly. And we added their Forester to our family. So, after nearly 9 years of being a one-car family, we now have two cars.

Before Christmas, the Anchorage Police Department put on a big, free family event called "Police Navidad." Props for the clever title. The girls did crafts from around the world, and even got to turn on the siren in the big police truck outside. It was pretty exciting. 

These are the girls' letters to Santa this year. They both only asked for candy. Celia gave Santa a list of candy from which to choose. Sabrina asked for a Nutcracker candy and wanted to be surprised for the rest. 

Caleb was able to fully enjoy the assortment of children's nativities this year. He taste-tested them all, but the tree from the Playmobil nativity was the winner.

The boys dressed up in matching, festive green for our annual Christmas Eve skating. Caleb enjoyed his time in the sled.

For Christmas Eve dinner, we made soup and invited the neighbors. Rich and Patty showed up. They are super nice and always put up with my kids so well outside. 

My mom and dad came up for Christmas this year. Caleb enjoyed getting cuddles from everyone.

We went downtown and saw the elaborate Christmas gingerbread village in the lobby of a fancy hotel.

This is our only picture of actual Christmas. Caleb got this cool toy, the girls wore their crowns from the crackers we made for FHE a few weeks earlier, we had some lovely friends over and ate a ton of food and watched a Tinkerbell movie. 

This year, we were invited to a Family Home Evening Nativity party. The girls were angels and wore their costumes for days ahead of time.

It turns out my mom got cuddles and my dad got piled on. 

Though completely unpictured, for New Year's, we rang it in at 8PM with the live Times Square webcast as is our custom, and this year, I had to go chaperone the youth dance. Good times were had by all.