cookies and milk for Santa

On Christmas Eve night, Jessica and Jamison made a plate for Santa and his reindeer -- cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeers.

Here it is, tucked up high, so Santa and his reindeer could enjoy it without the dogs stealing it.

early presents on Christmas Eve

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Jessica and Jamison opened Christmas presents from family in Indiana. Here is the stack of presents that they woke up to.

The girls were so excited to see all of the presents and started opening them right away.

Lalaloopsy dolls were on the top of Jessica's list and she really wanted the new ice princess.  She was very excited to get it.

Jamison loves Ariel and was excited to get Princess Ariel and Prince Eric dolls (amongst other ones).

She also loves board games and was really excited to get more Bingo games.

Jessica pretty much got every Lalaloopsy that she wanted plus a few more.

Christmas Eve Dinner

On Christmas Eve, Jessica and Jamison posed for photos with their cousins.

After dinner, the girls celebrated Nana's birthday.

Then, it was time for them to open Christmas presents.

Teddy Bear Tea Party

The Sunday before Christmas Eve, Jessica and Jamison went to a Teddy Bear Tea with their friend Isabella.  They were very excited to bring their latest Build-A-Bear creations with them.

The girls had fun posing for pictures once they got to the tea.  The bear and elves were a big hit.

The girls really enjoyed the tea party.  Jessica was a big fan of the hot chocolate and desserts while Jamison ate through all the marshmallows.

The show was a bit hit too.

Train of Lights

The weekend before Christmas, we took the girls on a Christmas train of lights with their friends Isabella and Ben.

The kids got to sit across the aisle from us on the train.

Between looking out the window and eating snack, they were all pretty occupied.

All of the kids had fun.

Everyone got to sit with Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

Once we got off the train, the lights were quite pretty.  The kids wanted to pose with them.

Winter Concert 2012

Before school ended for winter break, Jessica's school had a Winter Concert for grades K-2.  Here's a picture of her before the concert started.  Looking quite ladylike I must say.

And, I guess that she got a bit bored while waiting for her turn.

Then, it was time for singing.

Here is a picture of both Kindergarten classes singing at the concert.

They sang two songs.


Here is a photo of grades K-2 in the grand finale.

And, here is the video.

Saturday morning fun

These days, Saturday mornings are busy -- gym class for Jamison and ice skating lessons for Jamison.

Here is Jamison practicing balancing at her gym class.

And, here is Jessica ice skating at one of her lessons before Christmas vacation.

more of our elves from Christmas

Jessica and even Jamison started to look forward to all the trouble our elves got into overnight.  One morning, the elves were particularly hard to find.  Evidently, they had taken Barbie's car for a joyride and were zooming around under our dining room table.

Another day, they were tricky to spot because they decided to hide themselves way up high amongst the girls' art and craft supplies. It was a while before Jessica looked up to see them.

Another night, Jessica challenged the elves. She mentioned that her stuffed animal Totoro would keep watch and not let them sneak into her room.  Well, I think they did sneak into her room since they tied up Totoro in our family room.

Luckily, Jessica was there to save him by snipping all the ties with her scissors.

And, finally, one morning, the girls found their elves in the shower.  To top it off, they had stolen their toothbrushes.

magic elf seeds

One morning, Jessica and Jamison found a gift of magic elf seeds from Toodles and Goldie.

They brought a special present from Santa Clause of magic elf seeds. They were told to plant the seeds and see what happened.

Jessica was very excited to have these magic seeds and wanted to plant them right away.

Both Jessica and Jamison got involved in preparing the soil (aka sugar).

Then, the girls worked together to plant the seeds.

Finally, they sprinkled some snow over the top of their seeds.  Where we are, snow is hard to come by, so we improvised and used crushed ice.

Jessica kept checking back throughout the day to see if anything had grown from the seeds.  She was excited to see something that looked an awful lot like cookies in the bowl the next morning.

The Nutcracker

In the middle of December, Jessica and I went to see the Nutcracker with friends and family.  Here is Jessica posing with her friend Isabella before the show started.

And, here is Jessica with her Nana right before the show began.

making gingerbread houses

This year, the girls decorated Gingerbread houses with some of their friends.  Here is a picture of everyone starting to decorate their houses.

Jessica and Jamison had fun decorating their houses. Jamison was so into it that she wouldn't stop to even smile.

Here are the houses all done.