Christmas Day

We had a fun Christmas morning just the 4 of us!
The kids had fun eating cinnamon buns, and hot chocolate on our bed and then onto opening stockings. Usually we try to open presents one at a time so everyone can see what the others got, etc....however, Bridget and Dillon were not too into that this year. We did the best we could to keep them from opening all at once. They had fun. We had some of those classic Oh My Goodness I Got What I Wanted faces. Love it!! Brian surprised me with with a Nintendo DSi, what a fun surprise.
Bridget's big present was a karaoke machine...unfortunately her throat has been sore so she hasn't been able to fully enjoy it - but we will soon! She also asked for a Jasmine dressup outfit and Santa was happy to oblige. Dillon big gift was a couple of additions to his GeoTrack set. He's enjoyed it so far!

We also opened gifts from Uncle Scott, Aunt Ashley, Caroline, Grandpa Z, Chen and Frankie. I think Bridget likes Dillon's gift from S,A and C just as much as he does! B got Guess Who from them and we've enjoyed it so far. Bridget got a camera from Grandpa Z - I look forward to seeing what artsy pictures she takes. Dillon got some trains - always a good thing! Thanks!

We are going to extend our holiday a bit and have Christmas with my Mom at the end of this week and with Brian's family Jan. 8/9th. Hopefully we'll see Aunt Sarah soon too.

Getting ready for Santa

We have a tradition of writing a note to Santa to give him with his milk and cookies. Here are Bridget and Dillon working on their drawings. It's serious work you know. :)


Spreading reindeer food.

Tracking Santa online. (check out Dillon's crossed feet!)


Putting out the cookies for Santa.

Christmas Eve

I took these before we went to church for Christmas Eve. Bridget and Dillon were being silly!

Bridget was Mary in the Christmas play again this year. But, this year it was a play with scenery and speaking parts! Right up Bridget's alley - she is always wanting to put on plays, make outfits and create sets. She has so many ideas floating around in her head...just like her Daddy. Bridget did great - even with laryngitis (is that spelled right?!). She even corrected some of the other kids...yup, she didn't just remember her own lines. She even corrected Pastor Tom when he was telling the kids the Christmas story. He said the angels came and told the shepards not to be afraid - Bridget told him that the angel said "fear not." And Dillon repeated everything he said (Dillon is VERY into repeating now) - so there was emphasis on the story. And yes - my two were the only ones interrupting. Thankfully everyone thinks it's cute when kids do that. :)

Gingerbread House

I thought it might be fun to do a gingerbread house this year. I didn't realize I would have to wait 3 hours after 'gluing' it together with icing....so we had to postpone making the house on the 23rd. I glued it together that night and we made it on Christmas Eve. It's pretty serious work as you'll see in the pictures. I think we had a good mix of what I did and what the kids did....nothing professional to say the least. :) I think we'll keep up this tradition next year.

SNOW!!!

We had TRUE snow this year!! Hooray! Normally we get icy, yucky stuff. But this snow was at least 6 inches, and awesome packing snow for snowmen and sledding.
Here is a collage of some pictures from the day/night it snowed Dec. 18th and Dec. 19th. We had fun sledding at Mike and Shannon's Friday evening while it was still snowing hard. Then Saturday we built Frosty Tom (Bridget wanted the name Tom and Dillon wanted Frosty - so he became Frosty Tom). We sled on a snow tube into the trees on the other side of the driveway. It wa a little perilous b/c you had to make sure he didn't hit any trees, but it was fun! Mike, Shannon, Xander and Jonas came over to sled with us. They stayed for dinner and to watch The Polar Express. That's what winter is about - fun in the snow and fun with friends!


On the 23rd we went back out to sled a little b/4 the snow melted. I discovered that the front ditch was a good slower place to sled (I watched the kids next door to figure this out). Bridget was feeling well, so she didn't last long outside, but Dillon had a blast going in the tube alone and with Brian and me. It would be great if we got another good snow this year!

Preschool Christmas program

There is a small Christmas program at preschool each year. The kids dress up, listen to a Christmas nativity story, and sing a song.
This is part of Bridget's class.

Our little Mary.

Christmas specials

We had fun watching Christmas specials this year (Bridget got to watch more than Dillon b/c they come a little after his bedtime).
I know this picture is a bit blurry, but I love it!


Could they get any cuter? I love this picture mainly b/c Dillon's foot is on Bridget. They have a lot of fun together lately. Dillon just goes along with Bridget's imagination - we often have a 'dance' party at our house. :)

Painting sleds

I really wanted to do a craft with the kids for Christmas, but was really late on getting that together. So, the easiest thing I could think of was popsicle stick sleds. Bridget and Dillon painted red and green sticks and I glued them together later. I realized as we were doing it that we haven't painted in a long time and they both loved it, so we'll be painting more soon!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

We had fun decorating the tree. Of course, small breakable ornaments couldn't be near the bottom so there is a serious lack of ornaments on the lower third of the tree. I don't know why, but Dillon really is into taking ornaments off the tree this year.
I tried to get a cute pic of them in front of the tree...but it was not easy, there are some funny pictures!!

Church kids Christmas party

The kids had a fun time at the Christmas party at Church. I think the highlight was decorating sugar cookies. :)

That's Bridget and Claira.

Beads

Christmas tree shopping

We had fun looking for our tree this year. Someday we'll actually go to the mountains and pick a tree, but we got the next best thing. Dillon loved watching the tree guys cutting off the bottom of the tree with the chainsaw...such a boy!

favorite pastime

Bridget and Dillon love to take all the pillows off the couch and hang out. OR they leave the big pillows on and hide behind them. The other day Dillon was sitting on the back of the couch and pretending to ride a bike - he moved his legs like he was pedalling. Funny guy! I try to keep them from taking the pillows off, but I fight a losing battle. The couch has seen better days - but being 9 years old, I guess it's lived a good life.
Here Bridget is reading some cards to Dillon - it's about the lady who swallowed a fly.

Dillon and Jonas

I have started babysitting Jonas occasionally. Dillon loves playing with his little friends. He's always asking where Jonas, Megan, Jackson, and all of Bridget's friends are. We have a new table from Ikea that is perfect to 2 little people to sit at. Dillon loves to sit and color with crayons and pencils. I printed some Christmas tree pictures and the boys colored away!