More Christmas happenings

Last week Madeline and her cousin (my brother's boy) Donaven got to decorate some sugar cookies. It sounded like a good idea and that it was doable for the little guys...I guess their little wrists don't quite work so well at sprinkling sugar lightly over the cookies. The cookies had huge dunes of sugar on them, but after dumping off the excess, they turned out pretty yummy!

























Here's our photo with Santa - Abbie is on the verge of crying, I'm getting pinched in the neck, Madeline is looking the wrong way (same for Santa) and Jeremy is just so excited to be there. Classic.

Oh, Christmas Tree

I was uploading pictures from our camera to the computer (my semi-monthly cleaning of our memory card) and noticed that since putting up the Christmas tree, it's become a popular background for photos.
The girls love to touch the lights and Madeline is tall enough to reach the ornaments. We put the tree up higher this year to deter her from playing with them, but obviously, they're not high enough.












My very good friend, Stephanie, came for a surprise visit with her husband Mike last weekend. Not many people come up to North Pole to visit, so it was a real treat to have breakfast together and spend some time catching up here at home...and yes, get pictures in front of our tree.







Jeremy had his work Christmas party on Saturday, so we got all dressed up, got a babysitter (thanks mom) and got a wonderful picture...in front of our tree. The party was alright - we at lots of meat and dessert, danced a few dances, and headed over to Barnes & Noble.

I don't know of any other time of year when there's a more prominent background in our house to take pictures with. It's not a fancy tree. Most all the ornaments were given to us from our families or from when we were kids. The candy canes on it are from a year old stockpile. It was a Wal-mart special. It's a sentimental tree and maybe with the lights on it just looks so inviting. Like the time when I was a kid and I'd just sit in the darkened living room with only the tree on and just stare at it. Madeline now likes to do that - she figured that one out on her own. It's funny to see her doing things that she comes up with from her imagination. Amazing really. Well, at least we'll remember when these pictures were taken!

Winter wonderland

We had such beautiful weather around Thanksgiving...Maddie got to play outside at the playground one morning, which was an answer to her prayers - she's always praying that she can go to the playground. We went for a short walk to get some photos - the light was amazing. She was so happy to be out in the sun and snow. Thank you Kim for the inspiration to use the Beaver Springs bridge in the background :)

Home for the holidays...and a bit longer

Well, it's official - we've got a family blog! Enjoy our photos and random thoughts...