Holidaze

The holiday season has flown by quickly and there have been all sorts of activities. Before school ended, Emily's class got to go see a production of the Nutcracker and she was pretty excited for the opportunity to dress up! I think she liked the dressing up better than the actual performance. :)

Also, the kids wrote letters to Santa and received responses back just before the break. Above is Emily looking at Santa's response with one of her teachers. Emily had many items on her list this year, but the one thing that she wanted more than anything was a cotton candy maker, so this is what she chose to single out in her letter to Santa. Unfortunately, mean Mom exercised her veto power and told our elf, Frisbee, that Emily could not have a cotton candy maker this year. :(

Also before the break, the school put on the annual holiday program. In the end, I think that the kids cared more about running around with their friends beforehand than they did about actually completing the program. Maybe the school would be further ahead having a holiday party rather than a holiday performance. Above is Emily with two of her dearest friends - Emma in the picture on the left and Olive in the picture on the right. Such cuties!

Of course, the holiday season would not be complete without all of the typical activities. We had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa C. in the week leading up to Christmas, we made and decorated cookies, and we completed our annual holiday puzzle. Emily is old enough to help with the puzzle now and she is very good at it. She is also pretty cute about it. Shortly before we completed it, Emily had a piece in her hand and we heard her saying to herself, "Hmm, if I were this puzzle piece, where would I go?"

As for actual Christmas, I think that Emily did pretty well. She received the baking set that she asked for, a toy dog that walks and barks, etc. (not the chip pup that she asked for, but pretty close), and Secret Life of Pets to name a few. She also received Kubo and the Two Strings from Uncle Greg and Aunt Elizabeth. Her response, probably the most excited that I saw her this year, was priceless. This is definitely the look of true joy!

Finally, we did something new this year - we took the girls ice skating - twice! They absolutely loved it. Neither of them had ever been skating before, but they didn't hesitate to get out there and figure it out. Fortunately, Chad is pretty good on skates (a prerequisite for a Minnesotan), so he was able to help the girls quite a bit. I have a feeling that there will be a lot more skating in our future!