birthday, Christmas parties & fake snow!

I can't decide if I envy December babies or feel sorry for them. They get so many presents in that month, but then they get so many presents THAT month it must be hard to wait a whole 12 months for some more. We have celebrated a half birthday for Elaina, and that was fun, but I just can't let the 18th of December go by without celebrating her and the blessing that she is to our family.



Make a wish big gurl!


You can hardly see the birthday gurl behind all those presents!

My little chef in the making is thrilled to get an Easy Bake Oven! (I had one as a gurl, so secretly this gift is "really" for me.)

Cupcakes at school during snack time!

On to Joely's pre-school Christmas party. Here she is singing to Santa Claus. I am so happy she stood with the other children and sang instead of running over to me crying. (that's what I expected)

The children are wagging their fingers at folks singing, "You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you'd better not pout..."

I'll take a fake smile sitting in Santa's lap over wailing about the Big Guy any day!

At Elaina's "Winter Party," as it is called, they made a gingerbread house, but there was no gingerbread, with LOTS of white royal icing and candy, candy, candy.

Her work of art!

Seriously, who is teaching my kids to do the cheesey smile?

Here is a rare, but cherished, moment. Big sister reading to little sister. Why can't they always be this way?

We went the Gaylord National Hotel to see it "snow" inside. I didn't know that the snow would fall at 9:30 at night, so we walked around and looked at all the Christmas decorations until it was time for snow. Joely was so taken with this "Ho, Ho, Ho" as she calls him.

So, do you see the little white spots?

Joely was reaching up as far as she could to try to catch as much of the snow as possible.

OK, I'll confess, it was foam that was blown out onto the crowd, but it did look like the real thing while it was falling. Not being a fan of snow, at all, I could handle this snow: not cold, no clean up/shoveling, and you can walk in it.

Stay warm and remember: You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you'd better not pout...