The Daddy and His Girl

A bit fuzzy--the dark days combined with no overhead lighting in our main living area makes for difficult picture taking--but I still think these photos are worth documenting.

Alina loves her Daddy. 

 She saves up some pretty good smiles for each day when they are reunited when Sam returns home from work.

 And Daddy willingly returns the favor. He loves his baby girl!

Christmas Morning

We were down with a quick stomach bug on Christmas Eve, so Christmas Day didn't dawn at our house until David walked in to our room and said, "Mom and Dad, the clock says 9-3-4!" Wow! we didn't expect that! 

We had about that pace the entire day, of laying low and recovering from the bug that wiped us out the previous day. And while Sam (who stayed healthy) was wishing we had more of our traditional foods available on Christmas Day, we eventually found out the prime rib tastes just as good 5 days later as it does on Christmas Day. For Christmas dinner this year, David asked for mac and cheese. That sounded like an easy meal to fix with my low energy levels, so I obliged. But by the time it was finished, David had peeled an orange. He ate that and promptly went to bed without even looking at his prize meal. It all worked out after all--leftover mac and cheese never goes to waste at this house!

But even with the low energy and recovery going on, we still had a lovely Christmas Day.

David inspected the contents of his stocking, then quickly went to Alina to help her check out hers. Such a good illustration of the way David watches out for his little sister!

 Once David moved on to other interests, Alina seemed to want help reaching for her gifts.

 . . . and about that orange over there--could you please get that for me, Mom?

 David was very happy while he was opening this gift. But I had to include this because it shows his dramatization and his intensity. This boy accentuates every thought and feeling with all the body language he can muster.

 Now back to the project at hand . . .

 David helped me wrap Daddy's gift. This year we went a different route with Daddy and got him a single big gift with all the trimmings. David was more than excited about it, and vowed to keep the secret. I gave it a 50/50 chance. Apparently on the morning after we put this gift under the tree (so about 10 days before Christmas) Daddy and David were at the table together when David randomly leans over and tells Alina what we got Daddy for Christmas. Of course Sam heard--he was just right there--but every time I asked, David was absolutely convinced that he was being the best secret keeper because he hadn't told Daddy a thing. Not a single thing. Watching David sound out these tags let me know that I need to teach him to properly spell Alina's name. 

 The big unveil--an aquarium that will extend the average age of aquatic life at our house.

 David got a dump truck big enough to offer rides to his little sister. And she was okay with it--for about 24 seconds.

 Alina rocked the Minnie outfit. It even made her spit up look cute (kind of).

 Cleaned up, she was an absolute doll in it.

Until next year, Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, we wish you all the happiness of this celebrated season!

Nativity Night

 We were so happy that the Westons joined us, which multiplied the number of our cast members to re-enact the nativity. Here's our cast: Kelsey, Madi, Tyler, David

and Brynlee, with her sweet mom Lindsay.

 First we did the story of Samuel the Lamanite getting run out of town for his prophecies about the birth, life and death of the Savior. Here he is dodging the "rocks and arrows" before he fled. (This is an account of how the people in America knew about the birth of the Christ child, as related in the Book of Mormon.)

 Then we moved on the account in the New Testament. Of all the characters, David chose to be the angel. Probably because this portrayal shows the angel to be a man, not a winged, cherubic female like we traditionally celebrate.

 The donkey dutifully carried Mary and Joseph to their destination.

 I think Kenny ended up being a wise man, with our sweet baby girl helping him out. Ken's always good for a cuddle with Alina!

 And of course we had the angel who came to the shepherd and the sheep--even if the sheep by then was just carrying her sheep's clothing.

It dawned on me that my family's tradition of acting out the nativity each year made me more aware of the true meaning of Christmas. With David in preschool this year, I realized that my belief in Santa came primarily from school and community more than it came from home. Mom and Dad let our believing hearts believe in the man in red, but the real reinforcement at home was in the nativity story. Santa never quite made sense to me--although the idea was always exciting--so I was never devastated to find out the "truth." And when I knew it for sure, it was wonderful to have the real reason for Christmas so reinforced in our traditions.

Santa's lap and Sleigh Ride

 I still say that Bailey's Santa and horse drawn sleigh ride is this town's best kept holiday secret. I've never seen a line more than 2 or 3 families deep, and the best part is that they do it at no charge! I saw a huge line at the mall waiting to pay $25 for a photo with Santa, and I wondered why they were all wasting their time. Oh well. I love this little tradition for our family!

This was Daddy's first year that he was able to join us.

 Oh, it was Alina's first time, too.

 It was relatively warm this year--hardly even scarf weather at a balmy 21 degrees.

 It's especially nice that the whole event is low key enough that they'll let the children pet the horses, and the drivers take all the time you want to ask questions about the huge beasts.

David made the same request of Santa this year that he made last year--he wanted another thermometer, because the one from last year broke.

 Without taking a breath, he also spoke up for his sister and told Santa that Alina wanted a dolly.

 In true David form, his conversation with Santa ended with a hug.

Party at Preschool

David had his first taste of school parties to celebrate holidays--and thankfully, this party was all about Christmas. It was fun to be at the party with him, and see more of why he loves going to preschool with Ms. Kerry.

 David and Ms. Jennifer (Who spends most of her time in the classroom teaching the off-track high schoolers about child development, but will occasionally have a few days in the preschool with the small children, too.)

 David and Ms. Kerry--before we signed up, everyone said, "You'll like the program at King Career Center, but you'll fall in love with Ms. Kerry." It's true! She is wonderful!

 Teacher Eddy was the high schooler assigned to David to help him for things like getting warm gear on to go outside and play. As a side note, these tiny kids go out for recess every day unless it reaches 0 degrees or colder. That's Alaskan hardiness for you--train them young!

 Kazoos were a favorite

 Led by none other than Ms. Kerry.

She sends the children home with a poem every day--this is how she finishes circle time, and David is cute to recite the verses on his own when he's at home.

 Waiting for his turn to say his line about reindeer #3.

The party was a potluck, and David and I had fun making snowmen, reindeer and santa hats to share.

 David made an ornament for our tree. (And apparently this particular high schooler didn't know how to take photos through a view finder. Ah well--it's the best we captured.)

  All the cute kids. If you look closely, you can see the three blonde triplet sisters who we've been bumping in to around the community for the last 4 years or so. Their mom had them out and about, taking them to daily activities around town to get them out of the house beginning at 6 months old. That is a brave mama! She says that packing  up the triplets was less work than having them climb up her walls if they stayed home.

As Ms Kerry said at the end of the party, "Goodbye preschool! We'll be back in 49 sleeps!"

Candy Construction 2013

 We had our annual party of pulling out lots of sugar and gluing it down with frosting. It's nice when friends will join us for our various traditions, and we enjoyed the Middletons' company for this activity.

David didn't need to be told twice what to do with the frosting and the candy. His "design" was nearly done before he looked up to see what everyone else was doing. Of course he got a few more ideas by watching others, so he just kept adding on to his. Somehow he was so anxious to get things glued down that he didn't stop to unwrap those candy canes. He put them on, plastic and all.

 I stuck to my annual train construction. However, for others I put together graham cracker houses, and used burnt sugar as the glue. Luckily I didn't get any burns while doing it, because I hear that's the only downfall of this particular method. I would have to agree that the houses remained sturdy, and it was nice to have them glued up before the activity began so we could get on to the fun part of decorating with candy.

Just for the record, we used off-brand graham crackers because we had them in our cupboard and we didn't care for the taste. However, they were all bowed, so it wasn't as easy as it would have been with flat crackers. Thankfully the burnt sugar glue was strong enough that the cracked crackers went back together with just a little more character than if they didn't have cracks in the walls.

Who's that Pretty Girl in the Mirror there?

 Who could that attractive girl be?

 Such a pretty face,

 Such a pretty smile,

 Such a pretty me!

 I feel pretty, oh so pretty . . .

It was fun to watch Alina be entertained by her own reflection for the first time.

She sure likes to smile back at the pretty little baby in the mirror! (The yellow circle is the back of the play mirror. We're still waiting for her to take interest in the dangling pink monkey.)

Exhibit

David likes to exhibit his strength and brotherly love in holding his baby sister.

Which gives Alina an opportunity to exhibit her unfailing patience.

(and yet another view of those chubby cheeks!)

Zoo Lights

We're into our daily advent of Christmas celebration activities.

The other night we had freezing rain, so the roads were terribly slick around town. That evening we braved the roads to head over to the zoo to see their holiday light display.

 A rare "selfie" to be sure that I was there, too.

The zoo in the cold and in the dark was different than I had ever seen it before--it seemed to have a whole slew of active arctic animals that were clearly in their element. Our 45 minute tour was just right for our little family

Lots of lights, lots of animals, plenty of cold and the four of us together.

With a few races through the light tunnels to keep warm.

It was a lovely way to celebrate the holidays.