Hi.

Just for you, Uncle Kevin. Sorry, we didn't save you a piece.

Still more presents

These are from Dan and Nikki, and I know they want to see us opening them.

Madeline was pretty excited, too. She got a CHOO CHOO and a tunnel to crawl through.

Another Christmas morning

Santa Claus was afraid our presents would not fit in the car (and that we would be too busy to open them all), so he left our presents under our Christmas tree at home in TX even though we were in NM. He left me a note so I wouldn't worry, but I was still relieved and excited to see them there when I got home.

I jumped up and down just seeing them, but I got REALLY excited once I realized what was in them. My own dressup clothes!

Tinkerbell and Snow White!

I tried them on right away, and now not a day goes by that I don't change clothes ten or more times. My regular clothes are hardly getting any use at all.

While we were in NM, Mommy and Daddy kept us running. We went to visit someone new almost every single day. We missed a lot of naps and had a lot of snacks. My favorite place to visit was Mommy's friend Gillian's house. She has two little girls just about my age. We spent hours playing together, mostly dressing up as princesses. When it was time for me to leave, the girls and I wrapped our arms around each other and cried because we wanted to stay together. I still keep asking Mommy to go back.

Madeline on a box

Madeline was not big enough to play the real violin, but Nanaw did let her play a box. She gets very excited whenever I have a violin lesson and wants to have one too.

She got particularly excited while Daddy, Aunt Sibling, Nanaw, and Uncle Kurt were playing string quartets. OK, we were all excited, but here's Madeline.

Later she started dancing like a wild child with Aunt Sibling.

Daddy even let her sit in his lap and help hold up his big violin with her heavy head. She took the responsibility very seriously.

A REAL violin!

While we were in NM, Nanaw gave me some Suzuki violin lessons.

After I practiced with my box, she even let me play on a REAL little violin! I was very excited and very impressed with myself.

I loved playing while Nanaw accompanied me on piano. I wanted to play a lot of Christmas songs and I wanted everyone to sing along. I kept getting in trouble for pointing my bow at people to order them to sing and dance.

Finally, someone cooperated with my wishes. My Aunt Rita is a REAL BALLET DANCER. She and I played a silly game where she would dance as long as I kept playing, but would stop whenever I stopped. It made me laugh and laugh.

More Christmas morning

Daddy helped us unpack our stockings.

Madeline wasn't really sure what to think.

She definitely loved getting a new "Puppup."

But sometimes the whole "opening presents" thing was just a little overwhelming. She reacted much the same way she reacts when someone suggest that she eat food-- horrifed, but then intrigued after she tastes the little bit that's sitting on her lip.

Christmas morning

Madeline and got matching baby dolls from Grandmama. Madeline was very excited about hers-- she knew it was pretty serious business to have a baby of your own to take care of.

Merry Christmas II

Mommy should just stop while she's ahead, I guess.

Merry Christmas

A few days after Thanksgiving, we got all dressed up to take our Christmas card picture. Daddy took four pictures, then Madeline had a meltdown. Mommy thought we were not really up to our cuteness potential. She decided to keep going. She tried to bribe us with pumpkin muffins. Madeline was happy, but I looked a little less photogenic than normal.

We gave up the battle, but not the war. Mommy proceeded to dress us up three more times trying to get a good shot. It was pretty hard to keep Madeline still, as she liked to walk up to the camera to "see the baby."

Even if we were still, we kept making goony faces.

Finally, after almost 100 pictures and four days, Madeline lost patience altogether and Mommy gave up.

The Christmas card that went out in the mail was the fourth picture we took. Mommy wants you to know that we are really MUCH cuter than it would indicate.

Daddies and little girls

The littlest ones check each other out.

Annual cookie baking event

This weekend we had our annual Christmas cookie making jamboree, stocking up the freezer for our Epiphany party next month. Sarah and Ryan came with Baby Kathryn, and this year Beth joined us too. It's a wonder any pictures got taken, we were so busy, but next time we won't forget Beth and Madeline.

Sarah rolled out cookies like a champ with Baby Kathryn in the sling and me by her side. What a pro. We ended up with: gingerbread, sugar cookies, chocolate chip snowballs, almond spritzer cookies, cranberry orange slices, jam thumbprints, chocolate covered cherry cookies, Rice Krispies treats, chocolate brownie stars, Finnish spice cookies, shortbread, lemon sugar cookies, and there's a batch of pumpkin spice cookies in the oven right now. This year I'm getting old enough to actually be a big help in the kitchen.

Today I'm wondering

Do angels wear shoes?

I'm thinking they don't, because they have wings.

Excerpts from my Christmas hymn

Sleeping Beauty was an angel
She came to tell me
About the baby Jesus, and Mary, and Saint Joseph
...................
In ancient times of God
....................
She put him in the manger
And all the animals were so happy
It was a cold winter's night, so they slept in the hay
and tucked him into the straw
And the next morning, they said "where is our breakfast?"