A Little Scary

If I didn't know this guy really well, (he's my baby brother) I'm not sure I'd let my children be around him. :) He doesn't always look this creepy - must be the birthday hat!

New Tree

We have a very big artificial tree in our living room every Christmas for the last 3 years. Fake trees kind of go against the grain with me, but I love BIG trees. Once we started looking at cut trees that cost over $100, we knew it was time. I admit, I love being able to put the tree up for Thanksgiving and not worry about it dying before Christmas. I love the "pre-lit" aspect, although we still put large colored bulbs on too. I miss the adventure of finding the tree and the smell of the fresh pine (thank you, Yankee Candle). This year, we got a live tree too! I mean a real, live tree - with a ball on the bottom and everything. According to Ryan, it weighed about 400 lbs. It sure looked nice in our family room for two weeks, though. We decorated it with popcorn, ribbon, and all of our homemade angel ornaments from over the years. It's now enjoying its new spot in our yard where we lost a tree last summer. I hope we started a new tradition!

Reunion

We got together with some old friends over the weekend. These couples were in our minichurch back before any of us had kids. It was great to see them all - the ones we see weekly, annually, and rarely! Emma was the oldest child present, so she got to be the photographer - which explains the only picture that I got (lots of ceiling).

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas morning here. The gang (my family) came at their leisure. They had to weigh out how much they wanted to see the girls open their presents versus how late they wanted to sleep. :) We started around 8 - not too bad. Emma and Lila actually took their time. They wanted to stop opening to play with a few gifts throughout the morning - a very welcome change from the usual. Moonsand was the biggest hit. Very soon it will disappear from the toy closet and reappear when the patio is open for business - Ugh! We saved the Wii for the last big surprise and Emma couldn't believe her good fortune!! We all played, opened, and had breakfast at our house. Later we went to Mom's for a delicious dinner with all of us and Uncle Barry's family.

Our three girls waiting to go downstairs - Trudy loved her first Christmas with us!

Notice the plumber's crack

One happy girl - Thank you Santa!

Lila actually cried Christmas morning because there wasn't snow outside. She was SO dissapointed. Then Gappy brought them a new sled - I don't know if that made it better or worse, but we'd better get some snow in the near future.

The gang - notice Mom still provides new matching jammies for her adult children and their spouses :)

Emma opening the "family gift" - she didn't take that hat off for two days either

Wii're having fun now!

Merry Christmas!!!

Lila is 4

I'm almost a week late in writing this post, but that's what happens with December birthdays!

My baby turned 4 last Tuesday. I can't believe it! I was telling her about the night she was born and it seems like yesterday that she was giving me that wide-eyed baby stare in the dark hospital room. After years of struggling to have another baby, I can surely see that this is the exact child God had planned for us all along. She is funny, loving, smart, challenging, and at times, unbelievable. She loves her sister and waits for her to get home from school every day to they can play together. Lila likes to play house and school with Emma, she loves play-doh, puzzles, her new American Girl doll, helping in the kitchen, projects involving glue sticks, dress ups, and (of course) her "big bear". She is good at cleaning up, opinionated about her clothes, and best friends with her dog, Trudy. She is not a picky eater at all, but usually passes on dessert. In fact, she only ate the red velvet cake part of her birthday cake, not the icing part (backwards kid!!).

We celebrated her birthday with a family dinner here. Grammy, Gappy, Aunt Bec, Uncle Chris, Aunt Meg, Uncle Rob all came. She wanted chicken parm and ceasar salad - with croutons (that was very important). For presents she got lots of clothes for her new doll, books, clothes, jammies, and The Wizard of Oz DVD. I promised her a party with a few friends in January.

She's a bit Grinch-obsessed, so Emma was happy to give her this present.

Kit - her very own AG doll to play with with Emma.

Being silly with Tanta's presents

Cinderella cake - as requested

"Happy Birthday to Lila...."

Our little girl

The REAL Santa

Well, we got to see him - the REAL Santa. If you ask Emma, the one at Macy's in Philadelphia was just pathetic. So yesterday we went after church to a local shopping center our friends had recommended, and there he was!

Here are Emma's valid points (and believe me, I've heard the full dissertation several times by now) for how you know if he's the real one:

1. The sign out front listed specific dates that he would be there. He's Santa, for goodness sake, you need an appointment to get him to your store. He's not just there all the time!!

2. His beard wasn't all white, but had some gray around edges so you could tell it was real.

3. He didn't ask their names. He knows them already, so why would he have to ask who they were?! (I don't recall him using their names in conversation, but apparently that wasn't the point).

4. He took time with them. He chatted with them and asked them over and over what else they would like. He then checked to make sure that they would be leaving cookies for him on the 24th. Oh - and he didn't mistake "underoos" for "bendaroos" like the last guy.

5. He gave them candy canes. When Emma met the REAL Santa years ago in NYC, she remembers that he gave her a candy cane. So did this guy!!! The Philly version gave a button with the Macy's slogan, "Believe" on it - lame!

Here are my girls with Santa Claus - pure magic to watch!

Lila's Christmas Program

Lila's preschool program had their Christmas Show a few days ago. Lila was, of course, an angel - with blue wings (she didn't want the white ones). She did a great job! We'll need to go over a few things before her next performance opportunity, however...like, don't pick your nose on stage, keep your legs together when sitting on stage, and try to hold your temper even when the girl next to you is really egging you on with her balloon. Here's a little video footage. Our video camera's battery, of course, died when the program started, so this is from our Powershot.

Nevermind. I've been trying to upload the video for days, but for some reason, it's not working. Here are the pictures anyway...

Talk about angelic!....

She's next to the girl with the red skirt and the red balloon.

Nice "angel hands", Lila

Lila and her friend, Emma

Dicken's Festival

Saturday night, Emma had the chance to sing at a township Dicken's Festival with her church choir.
It. Was. Cold.
Moments before the kids started singing, it started to snow! They took turns singing alternately with the adult choir for over two hours and the beautiful December snow kept falling. It was a wonderful night and an awesome opportunity for our children to be (as Miss Julie puts it) "missionaries right in town"! We got to hang out in the "backlot" with lots of our friends in between sets. Afterwards we warmed up for a while at Aunt Becca and Uncle Chris's house.

Bundled

Santa's entry down Main Street

The Kingdom Kids
Emma is right in the middle with the red coat and white hat.

Lila and Kate enjoying a snowy snack while the big kids were singing out front.

A little gross, but they crack me up!

Visiting Two Important Men

We had a busy day on Saturday. We had to visit two very important men in Philadelphia.

First of all, my dad was in the hospital. We're still praising God that his surgery on Friday went very well and he's even now at home. But Saturday, we went to visit him at Jefferson Hospital. Once the girls got comfortable with the idea of their "Gappy" being in a hospital, it was all fun and games. The TV was cool with its little speaker thing you move around. Tasting the crackers and dessert off of the hospital lunch tray was fun. But the little blue "sucky thing" was awesome! They took turns with it and entertained themselves for about 30 minutes! :)



We left the hospital and decided to walk over to Macy's. It was only a few blocks and it was a fun opportunity to take Emma and Lila to see Santa. We waited for quite a while to go through Dicken's Village and see the big guy. I wasn't sure how either one would react.

Lila was all business! She told him exactly what she wanted before he even asked her name! (Moonsand, by the way). Emma was less than thrilled to go sit on Santa's lap. She has this idea that the Santas in the mall aren't the real Santa, so it's kind of a futile activity. She was a good sport for her sister, though - even though Santa misunderstood her request for "Bendaroos" and told her twice that he would bring her some "Underoos"! That brought out some good gigles and eye-rolling afterwards.


We stayed and watched the famous light show in Macy's. This old building was the original Wannamaker's in Philadelphia and the light show is a bit of tradition in the City of Brotherly Love. It gets crowded, though, so Ryan had to lift both girls so they could see.