2012 christmas card

this year, we were prepared early for our annual christmas card.  we were lured to jcpenney back in october by a freebie promotion.  that, along with daddy's 25% discount, made our choice easy.  i really do have fun each year assembling our annual card.  and it is fun to look back on how far we've come...

merry christmas!

little sister got exactly what she wanted from santa - a monster high high school playset.

and big sister got legos - lots & lots of legos!

they also got roller skates.  and they are getting quite good at them, too.

great day for parties

 i floated between christmas parties today - since the girls' classrooms are at the opposite end of the same hallway.  first i said hello to each girl, then i watched little sister's play - where she was an elf (one of the green pointy-hats).  then when they started their activites, i floated back down to third grade...

little sister playing christmas bingo with skittles 

 big sister's class had a book exchange, and all the kids sat in a circle and passed the gift to the right or left, based on a story the teacher read that had lots of "right" or "left" words in it.  as you can imagine, those two words were mentioned quite a lot in the story, and the kids had a good time trying to keep up with the passing.  after trading with a classmate (because she did not like the book she ended up with) - she went home with a great book with cd - brave.

 then i headed back to first to see little sister working on activites 2 & 3 - painting a bell ornament and decorating cookies.  yum!

 then there was a coloring book exchange, where the teacher read "the night before christmas" that had all of the student names in it.  when they heard a classmate's name, they were to pass the book.  that was funny to watch as well. 

all in all - the morning was full of sweets, treats, and holiday spirit.  what a great way to end the semester and start the holiday break.

class pictures

 once again, big sister is front row and center...

...and little sister is high up on the back row! (and toothless too!)

12 days of cookies

i've spent a portion of the past 2 weeks or so either baking cookies or prepping to bake cookies (making dough, searching for recipes, etc.)

and thankfully, i had some "helpers"...

the girls are good at rolling the dough balls in sugar.

and good at off-loading the done cookies onto a wire rack.

even though their attention span ends long before the job is done, at least they try to help.  they are also willing taste-testers and my biggest fans! ;-)

who's ready for gingerbread??

 while the adults exchanged cookies at a party we went to, the kids got to decorate gingerbread houses.  with tons of icing and lots of candies to choose from, i had two quiet, intensely-working girls for almost an hour.  big sister created a symetrically balanced masterpiece, and little sister's finished abode featured rooftop windows.  and we made it through without even one tummy ache.  and after seeing all the gumdrops that little sister ate, i'd say that is a christmas miracle!

wintery wardrobe

it was all fun & games until they stepped outside and felt the 29 degrees.  there was (surprisingly) no fighting about who wore which scarf, hat, and gloves.  our first dusting of snow for the season, and it is not even officially winter yet.  big sister has been saying we will have snow for christmas this year, and today's weather is only reinforcing her theory.  i guess we will have to wait and see...

the nutcracker

we got a cool treat yesterday to get us into the holiday spirit.  grandma janet's orchestra provided the music for a local production of the nutcracker. 

the girls had a great time before the show, seeing all of the instruments in the orchestra up close, and during the perfomance.

 and on the drive back home, our honda pilot hit a milestone.  not bad for a car we bought 8 years ago to replace our sporty miata...

beach day

today started with a search for a missing tooth.  her last wiggly, wobbly tooth fell out in the middle of the night sometime.  we found it on the floor next to the bed.  so, little sister will get yet another visit from the california tooth fairy.  that makes 3 lost teeth this month!

 then we headed south to see the ocean, specifically to santa cruz.  it was a gorgeously sunny day (near 80 degrees!) - and we were dressed for cooler temps.  our first stop was the seymour marine discovery center campus.  there we saw the world's largest whale skeleton.  it was super big!

next we headed to natural bridges state beach to get some sand between our toes.

our last stop for the day was the santa cruz wharf and beach boardwalk - which was filled with arcade games, rides, food vendors, and lots of people enjoying the day.  we saw sea lions, palm trees, surfers, and more sandy beaches.  the girls were real troopers as we explored the area on foot for a few hours.