A Christmas of Firsts...

We've had all kinds of firsts this Christmas. 

First preschool Christmas program.

First Christmas present from Brooke.  I wanted to wait for Scot to get home to open it.

My suggestion was not well-received. 



A gift with a picture and hand prints??  Love it!

First snow while old enough to watch and get excited.

First gingerbread house made at first happy birthday Jesus party. 

I took exactly one picture before Brooke reminded me why I keep the gingerbread house on top of the fridge.

First ever batch of crackle-top molasses cookies.  This one's not much of a "first," I know.  But they were so pretty I had to show them off.  I don't always get "pretty" when I bake.

  Eating cookies and making messes?  First...nothing.
  

Santa Babies

I absolutely love this time of year.  And it's even more fun with little ones.  Everything is new and exciting.

We braved the Arctic temperatures the other night to go see Santa at the park. I thought the kids wouldn't want to sit on his lap or that they'd be scared of him.  

I was wrong. They liked him. A lot.

Brooke announced that she wanted a reindeer for Christmas.  Nothing else.  So she might be a little disappointed on Christmas morning.  But at least we got a picture of Comet:

Nate just sat and looked around.  What does he want, Santa?  He's 17 months old.  He wants the boxes and the wrapping paper.

Such a sweet (cold!) night with Santa.

Girl Time

Girl time is awesome.

After lunch I hose down Stinks and ship him off to bed.

Then we play, just me and my girl.  

Her newest favorite toy?  Scot's "Bahamas" hat.  Brooke and Nathan have been wearing it nonstop.  It's like having tiny retirees running around the house. 

Today we pulled out the Play-doh.  You may remember that we love Play-doh around here. 

Can you tell what we made today?  A snake with a dress and glass slippers.

Duh.

Do you think Brooke will remember these little times we stopped everything and just played, even though the house looks like this?

Except it looks way worse. But that mess will be here tomorrow or whenever I finally decide I can't stand it anymore. So, instead of cleaning, we play snake dress-up with the Play-doh on the kitchen floor while wearing straw hats. 

I don't know if she'll remember these sweet little times, but I will. I'm so glad for them. 

I just love that girl of mine.

Sweet

In my world there are two kinds of sweet: 

1. things that are sweet now and
2. things that will be sweet someday when the babies are bigger and I think back to these baby days.  But for now, maybe not so much.   

For example.

Sweet now:  looking in the rear view mirror to see the little guys holding hands across their car seats.  (And finding that they're still holding hands when I come back with the camera!)

Sweet later: Christmas ornaments all over my house. 

Sweet now:  finding evidence that Brooke was playing mama and babies with the snowmen.

Sweet later:  My favorite Christmas decorations gobbed together at the top of the tree and out of reach.  And two little people constantly trying to reach them.

Sweet now:  Brooke's if-you-find-a-good-spot-stick-with-it decorating mantra.

Sweet (much) later:  the basketball goal in my entryway.

Nice, no? It says, "Welcome.  Stay a while.  Dunk." 

So, so sweet now:  watching these babies get excited for Christmas...

Thanksgiving, Y'all

This Thanksgiving we loaded 'er up and headed South.  Like, way south, ya'll.   

And after 137 hours on the road with two toddlers, there's nothing better than seeing that the halls are decked and that the family is there ready to start the party.

 We had lots of amazing food, of course.

These were just the appetizers.  We haven't even hit the main course yet. 

Here we go with the big dishes...aren't they pretty?

My sister-in-law shared the story of the first Thanksgiving with the kids.  Then we ate.

I cleaned my plate.  I even ate the sweet potatoes with pineapple chunks.  And I'd do it again.

The cousins all had a blast together. Cousins are great, aren't they? 

They've always got your back.

And they'll carry you through the rough times.

But they will throw you down in a wrestling match. 

Men.

I would have gotten a better picture if I hadn't been scared for my life. 

We all had a blast.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our hosts and hostesses. :-) 

You Are What You Eat

I love Google. 

You can type in a phrase like "turkey cookies" and before you know it, you've spent your whole day getting all Thanksgivingy.  (What?  Spell check doesn't recognize that word??)

Anyway, we made turkey cookies today.

Any serious baker needs her own apron.

Brooke is getting really good at baking!  She cracks eggs like a pro.  No shells or anything.

Here they are...

Happy turkey day, from my little turkeys to yours.