Christmas 2009

(what? it's almost March? oops!)
Christmas Eve was a little bit different around here due to all of the snow. I really missed our normal traditions, but we still managed to gather some unique and fun memories!

Bella's choir got to sing in front of the church for the first time. I'm so glad we got to do that just before the snow started getting bad! Choir robes instantly turn children into little angels, don't they?
We came home, and realized we didn't have much in the way of dinner. We hadn't planned on eating at home, and about all we had was some frozen ground beef. Brian came up with the idea to cook out hamburgers in the snow! The girls watched him for a while...
But they couldn't just watch for long...they played, still in their church dresses (+ coats and boots, at least)...why not, right?

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...
side note: Bella always has to accessorize her hair before bedtime. She comes up with some interesting combinations.
Santa visited...
...and made a couple of little girls very happy (but especially this one, who was VERY specific about wanting an American Girl doll!).
Opening those crazy Zhu Zhu hamsters. For some reason, the hamsters say "moo," so Lucy calls them "moosters."

We braved the snow (well, Brian did, I'm not ever brave about snow), and drove to Momo and Papa's house. Bella was so happy to receive another one of her must-haves...a ballerina jewelry box.

Grandma B was there too!
We had a wonderful lunch, and then, with all of the dessert choices in the world (cookies, pies, candies), the girls requested popsicles. Popsicles and Momo and Papa's house just go together, apparently. Never mind that there were much better options, and that it was freezing outside.
After a rest a home, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner. The gift opening took place at lightening speed, so I missed getting pictures. Bella and Lucy got a guitar and keyboard and putting on shows all of the time now.
All of the cousins...
Finally, we had our postponed Christmas Eve celebration with Brian's extended family a couple of days late. Lucy and cousin Jadyn were so cute playing with all of the boy toys in Jake's room.
One more picture of all the pretty (immediate) girl cousins...

Before Christmas...

Going back to November...Bella had her annual Christmas dance performance.
Her class tap danced to Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. When the saxophone plays in the song they pretended to play it too, and I think that was Bella's favorite part! We had lots of fake saxophone playing going on at our house.
These pictures were from when we decorated our tree. Our tree ornaments are a mixture of all kinds of different things. It's nothing formal at all, which works very well with a 5 and 3 year old's decorating philosophies!



Here the girls were after visiting Santa. Lucy still wouldn't talk or look at him, but at least she sat on his lap. He hands out some very yummy cookies, so maybe she realized it's worth it just for that.


They were really interested in seeing all of the Nutcracker story displays.

We got together with my brother's family to exchange gifts. The kids were a little giddy here as you can probably tell!


Finally, a couple of days before Christmas, we decorated cookies.

Coming soon...Christmas Eve and Day