Christmas Party

We had our work "family" Christmas Party the Saturday that Victoria was with us, which was a double blessing.  One-on-one defense is so much easier.

We went to the bounce houses first, but those don't really keep their attention for more than 20 minutes or so these days.  They wanted to go do the arts and crafts, so they did some stickers and made a necklace.

Then we had some cookies.

They wanted nothing to do with visiting Santa, but they were all over the ice skating.  We tried talking them out of it because there was a long line to get skates.  But they wouldn't hear it.  So we all got skates on (and Julie dropped a skate on my socked foot), except Victoria because she didn't have socks on.  It worked out best that way, though, so that Greg and I could take the girls one at a time.

It's been years since I've been on skates, so I was a bit wobbly to begin with.  Plus, it's a lot harder to skate slow than it is to skate fast.  Add in somebody trying to pull you down, and it was back-breaking. They actually had these plastic "trainers" that looked kind of like plastic high chairs (you can see part of a blue and red one in the picture of Greg and Julie below), but there were never any free.  Or, we couldn't get to them fast enough.

I took Emma around a full lap, and then Becca.  About 1/4 of the way through, Becca got frustrated and started stamping/kicking her feet and managed to kick me in the shin with the back of her skate.  I was trying to get her to just stand still so I could push her, but she kept moving her feet.  About 3/4 of the way around, Becca decided she could skate on her own, and insisted on letting going of my hands.  She didn't even make it a full step before she was on the ice and crying.  Poor girl.  But she did take my hands back and made it the rest of the way around.  That was about all this mama's back (and arches) could take.

After ice skating, we headed out to the park just outside, because it was like a 70 degree December day.

Everything's better with pink cowgirl boots.  Actually, these are over a year old now, and probably too small now, but the pink Target ones this season weren't as pretty.

This was a new challenge for them.  Of course Emma tried willed her way through it first.

Julie in cowgirl boots, too.

I'm pretty sure they took a good nap after lunch.

The Big Christmas House

Aunt Victoria came to visit us earlier in December, and because we know how to show our guests a good time, we took her up the street to see The Big Christmas House.

Love this one of all of them.

Sisters

We only had one cat when I was a little kid (his name was "Bad") so this was new to me, and I can't believe I'd never gotten a picture of this before.

Dusty and Lefty are 6 years old, and if you've been following me that long, you probably know that they are sisters from the same litter.  And even though they fight and hiss at each other and eat each other's food, they also take care of each other.

They actually bath each other, in places where they can't reach themselves.  They clean each other's ears and faces.

To clean someone else's face usually requires putting a paw on their head to steady it and balance.  I think this is the ultimate sign of trust in another cat.  And I say that because this will go on, back and forth, for a few minutes.  But it ALWAYS ends in a fight, when someone's paw was a little too aggressive.

It's winter now, which means that they like to sleep on top of our bed at night (instead of underneath it, where they sleep at night the rest of the year).  I love having a kitty foot warmer.  They never come up and try to wake us up if we're asleep.  If we do wake up though, and heaven forbid make eye contact, they'll climb up on our sides to be pet.

Poor kitties certainly don't get the attention that they used to, but we love them dearly!

Trimming the Tree, part 2

The stuffed animal decorations guilted us into putting the ornaments on the tree the next day.  Even though we had pre-sorted them last year into "fragile" and "ornaments the girls can put up," it was still chaos.  They wanted to grab the next one all the time, and the labeling system wasn't quite perfect.  And, my goodness, everything was wrapped in tissue paper, and as soon as we picked one up, they'd yell "What is it? What is it?"  

Like I can see through tissue paper.  

It was about to make my head explode.

We made sure the bottom 1/3 of the tree got plenty of coverage.  By the end, some of the bottom branches had two or three ornaments on them.  Greg and I have slowly been moving them up the tree.

The snowmen that light up and change color.  I love the look on Julie's face.

Emma took over these glass teardrops again this year.  Last year, she sat down on the ground, kind of back in the corner, and put them all over a few branches.  She spread them out a little bit this year, but the branch she's working on there already has two on it.

Merry Christmas

I'm taking a quick break from playing blog catch-up to say Merry Christmas.

I think this is the first time in a long time that Santa has been ready for our house before Christmas Eve, so Christmas Eve turned into a nice, quiet (and very rainy) day here.  Over the course of the day, we let the girls open a few presents, in part because there were just so many under the tree.  We are humbled by the love our family and friends show for us and our girls.  But with the gifts from mom and dad added in, we were starting to worry that the girls wouldn't be sure if Santa Claus came.

Truly, we are lucky and perhaps need to remember that more often.  I am probably one of the few people who didn't cry over the school shooting in Newtown.  I'm not sure why I didn't cry - I think it feels like I knew that it could happen, that I have already accepted that this world has people capable of things like that.  Yes, it was a shock, but then, in a way, it wasn't.  I lock my doors at night, but in my mind, I know that if someone really wanted to get into my house to hurt me, they could.  I'm not going to pretend I know how to have prevented a tragedy like that.  I'm also not going to let myself be lulled into a false sense of security by any new measures put in place at schools.

I said I didn't cry, but that's not entirely true.  I didn't cry until, just 5 days after the shooting, the girls had a school-wide Winter Song Festival.  At the end, the entire school range "Go In Peace" together, and the sound of their voices combined with the message are what finally hit me.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.  May it be filled with love, warmth, and peace.

Christmas Parade

We've got both a small, local Christmas parade (where they throw out candy) and a big county parade (where they don't).  This year, they ended up on the same day, so we decided to choose one, and went with the one that wasn't right in the middle of nap time. 

Waiting for the parade to start.  The girls were getting a little crazy.

When it first started, they were pretending to be scared and hiding their faces in Greg's back.  But they were too excited to keep that up for long.

They loved the bands.  Emma kept saying, "I told you there were going to be cymbals!"

So, this parade wasn't right in the middle of nap time, but it was of course in the middle of dinner time.  By the time the parade was over and we sat in the traffic to get out of the parking lot and congested downtown, it was nearly bed time, and we still hadn't had dinner.  We stopped at Subway, and if you can believe it, it was the first time the girls had ever been to Subway.  They thought it was pretty cool.

Trimming the tree, part 1

Once we got the tree up and inside, apparently it was taking us too long to get the ornaments on.  So one Saturday morning, the girls started "decorating" with their stuffed animals.

Eventually I had to cut them off or they would have pulled out every stuffed animal we own.

Town Tree Lighting

I'd seen that the town tree lighting was going to be on a Friday night at 6:30, which is like right smack in the middle of dinner.  But we drive past it twice a day, and the girls had watched the tree going up.  Luckily, it's fairly close to day care, so we decided we'd eat somewhere close and try to make it.  So, of course, our "quick" dinner place was packed and we didn't leave there until about 6:40.  We drove by to see the tree, but it still wasn't lit.  So we parked, and nearly ran over to the ceremony.  

We got there in time to see some Christmas carols.  The girls love to watch people sing and/or dance.

And then, about 5 minutes after we got there, they counted down and lit the tree!

 (The girls are now obsessed with counting down from 10 to 1.)

Best seat in the house!  It wasn't that crowded, though, so Becca and Julie saw just fine from the ground.

And then, catastrophe in the form of hot chocolate struck.  There was a nice church group there handing out free cookies and hot chocolate.  HOT chocolate.  Which Julie promptly took a sip of, burned her tongue, and then in shock, dropped the cup down the front of her.  And then started wailing.  Good times, good times.  Apparently the most traumatic part was that I was going to have to wash her coat and she didn't WANT me to wash her coat.

Peeking inside the "tree."

So, note for next year... The 6:30 tree lighting really happened at 6:55.

Minnies Save Christmas

We actually got our tree up before the end of November, which is quite an accomplishment.  Of course, we couldn't have done it without help.  Luckily, the 3 Minnies were up for the job.

Helping,

helping,

and more helping.  That's Emma with a really bad French braid in her hair.  Her hair is just so fine it won't hold yet.

Disney on Ice

I Someone had the bright idea to go see Disney on Ice over Thanksgiving weekend.  We did debate a bit, about whether the girls would enjoy it, and how much we wanted to spend on seats.

And, I am so glad we went with the cheap seats.  And the coupon.

Because this one?  This was about the happiest she looked the whole time.  Well, that might be an exaggeration.  She might have been slightly happier when she was eating popcorn before the show started.

Mickey and Minney came out in a car that backfired, and there were loud noises and flashes.  Emma insisted on leaving, and Becca wasn't letting Daddy and Emma escape without her.

Julie, though, mostly enjoyed the show.

Super grainy phone shots.

Emma came to visit at intermission, but was out of there again as soon as it got dark.  She and daddy did lots of walking around.  And some eating popcorn.

Becca actually came back just before intermission, and I convinced her to stay for the rest of the show.

So Emma and Greg saw essentially 60 seconds of the show.

And this is why it will be a LONG time until I spend money on movie tickets (or any sort of show like this) again.

O Christmas Tree

We made our annual trek to the ... Christmas tree lot by the mall on Black Friday.  

I have no idea why she is wearing a crown.  As long as we're not going to school, I try to just roll with it.

It's crazy how many times you can walk around a tree lot and still not remember which one you liked.

Checking out the baby trees.  Julie was excited because she could reach the top.

Becca checks the price.  Sorry Julie, this one's not coming home.

In front of the swagger wagon.

They gave the girls each one of these little stockings.  Which of course make great mittens.  Well, mitten.

Can't stop laughing at this one.  I think Becca just turned 13 in this picture.