Merry Christmas 2011

It was a wonderful Christmas! 

We had lots of fun playing games, playing outside and just enjoying each other. 

Charlotte would had preferred that it snowed, but other than that it was perfect. 

playing outside Christmas Eve

sword fight with Daddy

Our most favorite thing to do on Christmas Eve is to attend the candle light service at our church

I snuck in a picture of the service right before us. Sssshhhh! Don't tell - there's a no picture policy in church. 

That bit of info I found out about 30 minutes after I had taken this one....

We were all excitedly awaiting Santa's arrival. My friend, Katie, had told me about an app that tracks Santa's progression throughout Christmas Eve. We immediately downloaded it and loved checking in for location updates - Poland, Madagascar, Finland, etc.  It got really fun once we knew Santa was in the United States! 

Charlotte woke up around 7am and called from the top of the stairs, "Is it morning yet"?

Santa knew Charlotte was really good this year. He brought her a "big girl" bike, and My Little Pony, Sesame Street and Strawberry Shortcake toys.

Nothing is greater than watching a child's joy on Christmas morning.

Justin equally loves her toys.

Our Christmas table

Once we had finished dinner and each taken naps, we were excited to play games and preform our band. I'm terribly sorry that I do not have a video to share of this moment. I assure you it was greatness!

Below was my attempt at the self timer...

We'll keep you posted on our next concert.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

oxox

Cookies for Santa

This was our 3rd year to make cookies for Santa and we keep getting better and better. 

Our 1st year, we were just learning. We had lots of fun with the flour... flour on the floor, flour on us, and about double the flour needed for the recipe. Then, not realizing I was doing the wrong thing,  made a Royal Icing to decorating the cookies which turned out very VERY hard. 

Our 2nd year, was also fun. Less flour and better icing, but I had colored the icing red and green and I had red and green stained hands for a few days.

This year I found a wonderful recipe on-line:

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies 

Who can resist a recipe with that claim? Not me! And I'm glad too because they were the best!!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

I halved the recipe for us and still made almost 2 dozen.  

Her favorite part has always been rolling the dough

This year I heard a lot of, "I can do it without help".

I loved stepping back and watching her confidence. And she really did do a great job! 

Our motto was to ice one, taste one, ice one, taste one.

Yummy! 

Santa was extra lucky this year - not only were the cookies "the best" - they were made with 

A LOT of LOVE! 

Christmas Time

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." 

No, not really - Except for the decorations, fun parties, wrappings and already crowded stores. 

The weather here today was almost 70 degrees - though slightly rainy and cloudy, it could have passed for spring. 

When I think of Christmas, I think of snow and cold! Living in Dallas for almost 12 years, I've learned not to expect the snow, but the cold is usually always here (if not added ice too). I started wondering what people in warmer states and islands think of Christmas time. It's definitely different from me. Do their kids watch the old 1970's annual showing of Frosty the Snowman? Have they ever seen snow themselves? I bet their version of Santa, isn't with the heavy red suit and thick black boots but of shorts, t-shirt and sunglasses. Maybe even a picture of Santa surfing the waves with his toy sack over his shoulder. Maybe even the reindeer surf too! That would be cool!!

Ok, enough with the rambling and on to the pictures...

A few years ago, I made this advent calendar. It was a kit from Michael's and has tiny pockets that you can put treats into.  Charlotte loves to pull a chair up to it each morning to get the candy out for the day. I love it that she's enjoying it! I had something similar when I was little and looked forward to it each season. 

Sweet friends. 

Overnight stay at the Aldophus Hotel 

Breakfast with Santa 

FROSTY!

At the parade

And Char's favorite character...