home again

We're home after a fun Christmas.  I'm surrounded by toys, suitcases, and dirty laundry, so I have my work cut out for me today, while trying to keep Rebecca out of everything she's trying to get into.  Rachel's loving playing with all of her new toys.  Rebecca plays with them for awhile, but then goes back to getting into stuff.  Ugh.  Hopefully I can get something accomplished.  In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from our Christmas celebrations (sadly, we didn't take very many--too much excitement to remember to grab the camera!).

 Rachel in her new Belle dress from Santa--the gift she wanted most--

she took her PJs off right away to put it on, and has had it on much of the last four days.... 

Holding Wilber, the pig, from Charlotte's Web, a book we read together recently.

 

 Rebecca in her new chair

 Rebecca and her new car ramp--mostly she just likes holding the cars

 Again in her new chair--getting ready to leave for Grandma's house

Waiting to open presents at Grandma's house

Merry Christmas!

(This is the best picture we could get...Rebecca wouldn't sit still)

The stockings are hung from the chimney with care, the cookies are out, and Rebecca's already in bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head.

Rachel's beside herself with excitement.  I hope she can sleep! 

(Writing a note to Santa)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

more December fun

Today the little number 23 door said that we were going to the local science museum, where Rachel has been asking to go for months.  We went several times over the summer, but hadn't been since then.  They have a special Dora and Diego exhibit which is about to leave, and Rachel's really been wanting to see it.  My husband took the day off, so it was a good day to go.

Rebecca had a great time in the Dora and Diego exhibit (Rachel did, too, but it was aimed a little more at younger kids).

She especially loved the balls in this portion of the exhibit, and chased them all over.

Rachel loved pretending to be a butterfly in this flower garden.

And dressing up like an astronaut (if there's dress up involved, Rachel's in!).

They also had a special train exhibit for the holidays. 

It was a fun morning.

Nutcracker

Last night was the night!

She loved it.  I loved watching her love it.

Thank you, Dad!

santa fail

Rebecca wasn't impressed with Santa.

She was excited while we were waiting in line, saying "ho ho ho" and pointing at him.  But as soon as I tried to sit her on his lap, she wouldn't let go of me and started crying.  I had to pry her off of me and sit her down and watch her cry while my husband snapped pictures and we laughed.  What kind of parents do that???  Sit their child on a strange man's lap, let them cry, and laugh about it???  Well, apparently, we're that kind of parents.  It's a rite of passage.  I picked her up and she calmed down immediately.  She even waved goodbye to him once Rachel was done.

Rachel loved it, and told him the things she had written on her list (a Belle dress, shoes, gloves--"all yellow, please," and a princess doll).  He knew that Belle wore a yellow dress and she was impressed! 

Afterward we walked around outside and saw the big Christmas tree, trains, and nativity.

Rebecca loved the trains and kept saying "too too tain" over and over well after we left.

Then we went in Barnes and Noble to get warm and let Rebecca play awhile.

Despite the crying, it was a fun evening.

And here's one more picture of Rebecca....just because it makes me laugh.  This face of hers is even more priceless....but Rachel's isn't as good, which is why I chose the other one for the first one.

six pink peppermints 'til Christmas

Growing up, my mom always sang that song.  (It's six pink peppermints 'til Christmas....and there's lots and lots of things for us to do....)  I remember I would wait and wait for it to REALLY be six days until Christmas.  So here we are today!  Six more days!  Rachel thinks it's an eternity.  I can't believe it's already this close. 

We had Christmas celebration #1 this weekend with my husband's family.  Rachel had a great time with her cousins.  They have a Wii, and Rachel's been lamenting for months the fact that we don't have any video game systems in our house, so she was thrilled to finally get to play some video games for the first time (the only way she even knows what video games are is from commercials--she's seen commercials for X-box 360, so she keeps asking for one--we've told her she's too young).  So anyway, she got to play the Wii.  And even though she didn't really know what she was doing, she enjoyed it.

All of the cousins had a great time decorating Christmas cookies.

Yesterday we wrapped presents.  It's made Rachel even more excited, seeing presents under the tree.  She keeps asking to open "just ONE before Christmas."  "A week is such a loooooooooong time," she tells us. 

This morning she opened the little "19" door on the advent calendar (and read it all by herself!), and started jumping up and down.  It said, "Go see Santa."  She's been asking all month to go see him, and we just haven't had a chance to do it.  We've got a lot going on this week, so either tonight or Thursday night are our last two shots.  We thought it might be a little less crowded tonight.  So tonight it is!  It'll be interesting to see how Rebecca does--whether she screams in fear or not.

Rebecca is watching Sesame Street as I write this--her first time.  She's been really excited about Elmo lately, so I thought she might like it.  She's not a big TV watcher at all, but she's watching it off and on, in between stirring the "tea" in her play teapot and eating it with a spoon.  Every time Elmo goes off she keeps asking for him to come back.  But she's equally enthralled with Big Bird and Ernie.

Oh, and these are some more cookies I made last week.  They look cute, but didn't work out too well.  The pretzels kept falling off.  One of the recipes called for chocolate covered pretzels, and I think next time I'd try those, since the chocolate would melt when you push them in the hot cookies, and then harden, to help keep the pretzels in place.  But they looked good until you picked them up, anyway, and Rachel was excited about them.

wildlights

The first year we were married we went to the lights at our zoo.  I've never thought much about lights at the zoo--I didn't want to walk around in the cold and see animals (I've never been a huge animal fan), so we haven't gone since.

But this year we decided that Rachel would probably love it, and we already have a membership, so it wouldn't cost us anything to go, so we talked about possibly going.  Last night, at the spur of the moment, we went, since it was in the 50s, the rain had stopped, and it is going to turn cold again tomorrow. 

We were right--Rachel loved it.  We didn't see much in the way of animals (polar bears, white foxes, and reindeer), but we saw lots of beautiful lights and it wasn't cold at all.  Both girls LOVED the carousel.

Enjoy the pictures!