Merry Christmas, everyone!

We decorated cookies!

Tanner had very specific icing requests this year. "I want blue stripes...NO! Not that way! The stripes go the other way!" (Mom gives the cookies to someone else to decorate and tries again.)





Elena was a very careful artist. Her favorite colors were red and pink. Her designs were happy faces, and three buttons down the front of gingerbread men.

Alia had her own icing helper. A friend joined us for the evening and she and Alia were a busy team!













And, these two are Martin's specialties. The gingerbread man on the left lost a leg in the icing process. He quickly claimed it...and added a bit of gore! And the angel, well...he was funny because according to Martin he/she had no clothes on! Poor little angel!


--Merry Christmas to All!

Our Christmas tree went up last night. We've had our white tree for years and love how different it looks!

All three kids were great helpers this year! We still had out ornaments one at a time and have to remind them to walk and be calm...but they have grown up amazingly and only needed a tiny bit of help to put things on the tree.

The camera was upstairs and easily acessible this morning. Tanner was playing with Froggy (it took about four photos to get one where Froggy didn't cover his face!). Elena was snuggling with Dad...at least for a moment! :)

The weather has been cold and damp and we have made a point of staying inside where it is warm and dry. Elena needed something to do while Mom sewed....out came the scissors and the cardboard, and a bear was born. Out came the hole punch and some yarn and a "sewing bear" came to life.

The bear is still around, but he was only interesting for 10 minutes or so! ;)