Christmas and Snow and a Happy New Year

At the Christmas Character Parade Hannah met Saint Lucia who talked about the oldest daughter dressing up and delivering rolls to her family.  Hannah thought it would be fun to do.  She had high expectations for how everything would go, and she was upset that those expectations were not met. One thing I love about Hannah though is that she is really good at apologizing after she gets upset.

Ethan loved the idea of making gingerbread cookies because one might run away.  One did, of course :).

Our neighbors/friends came over to help decorate cookies.

More cookies and a great cookie making helper.  We hosted a neighborhood hot cocoa party again so we made lots of yummy treats.

Acting out the nativity for family home evening. Wise man Eliza presenting her gift to Jesus.

Exploring evergreens at preschool

"The Sweet Smell of Christmas" We read the book and had fun smelling the objects.

A dusting of snow...enough to explore, and fitting for our "winter in the woods" theme.

We did a preschool book exchange which was really cute- the kids were excited to give each other presents.

Checking out their new books.

When big brother wants to go to the high school field to play football with friends, sometimes spiderman tags along.

Half birthday cake give away- Hannah wanted to break from tradition and make a blue one.



Christmas Eve sibling gift exchange.  I love Eliza's excitement to give Andrew his present. 

Cute sisters :). They usually only give a gift to one sibling. They do an extra chore to earn the money and then pick something out from the choices I give them of things I've bought.  This year they wanted to earn enough to give each sibling a present. We haven't found the perfect way to do it yet.  I love that my sisters kids made each other presents.  I also like the idea of them doing the shopping and picking things out themselves. We'll see what we end up with for next year.

We got a lot of games this Christmas.  Our favorites have been otrio, splendor, dragonwood, and outfoxed.

He has spent so much time lining up and playing with the risk guys.

The footy jammie stair slide with the Fassmans.

When it is Christmas Eve and you have a real newborn baby with you, it is necessary to act out the nativity, even if you've already done it.  We didn't dress up this time and "Mary" had a little cold so Joseph was more than happy to hold the baby.

Santa came! Eliza asked for a dollhouse, Ethan asked for a ninja suit, Andrew asked for a fitbit, and Hannah asked for an American girl doll salon chair.  Hannah found the American girl doll in the picture at a garage sale for a great price.  I told her I would buy her but she would have to wait until Christmas to get her.

Checking out the stocking

Christmas morning hairdo

Let the opening begin!

The "Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher" was one of Daniels favorite Christmas books as a kid and our kids love it too.

Eliza cut all these potatoes herself (after I cut them in half so they had a flat side).  She loves this kid-safe knife from the dollar store.

Hannah making the grilled cheese sandwiches

Cute kid

New Years Eve game playing with friends.  Hannah loves games and we had fun playing Andrew's Harry Potter Hogwarts game together for a couple of days straight.

Ethan and Eliza were so close to making it up until midnight.  They both fell asleep around 11:45.

Ethan names his blankets the color they are.  Here he is sleeping with White. :)

Drinking sparkling cider at midnight with friends. Happy New Year!

This cotton candy maker is pretty cool.  Each stick of cotton candy is made from only 1 or 2 lifesavers.

Our first snow.  There wasn't much but the kids still had fun.

Sweet kiddos...when they want to be.

There wasn't a lot of snow but the little hill on the side of the house worked pretty well for sledding.

At one point Andrew layed down on the sled on his stomach, Hannah was on his back, and Ethan was on her back and they all went down together.

Eliza wanted nothing to do with the group sled ride but she had fun going down the hill with Andrew.

Ninja Ethan

His first time roller skating at a birthday party.  Daniel said he only lasted a couple of minutes and then was done.

New Years tradition...Daniel takes the kids bowling while I clean.  They had to wait until the 2nd this year because New Years was on a Sunday.  Speaking of which, Eliza is in Sunbeams now and loves it!



This was on Wednesday when it was 70 degrees outside.  The next day it was 32 degrees and now we are in the middle of our second ice storm of the season. Crazy!