A Visit With Santa

A few weeks we visited Santa at the mall.  Luckily there was only a short line since Allison and Amelia were so excited to see him. Once there, they barely could wait their turn to sit on Santa's lap. They both did an excellent job in visiting with him. Even though they liked Santa, they both had a "deer in the headlight" look on their faces when it came time to have their picture taken by the photographer. When the girls finally did smile, the photographer just stood there and patiently waited until after they were done smiling before deciding to take their picture. Luckily we ignored the sign that said "no personal cameras beyond this point" and took the pictures below.



Team Work

A week ago the girls put together a gingerbread house. I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to work out. Last year Amelia was young enough that she didn't realize Allison was working on it, however I knew this year Mia would want to help out. The question was how willing would  "big sis" be in accepting help. When we first started, I gave Amelia part of the tree that came along with the kit. I thought maybe that would distract her. It didn't take long for Amelia to help Allison, and much to our surprise, they made an excellent team.  Amelia was in charge of distribution of supplies and Allison was in charge of construction. As you can see they did a good job.

In this video you will notice that Amelia is calling Allison "dada." This started a few weeks ago - we thought it was cute how Allison would respond to her, even though we are not sure how or why Amelia decided to call Allison "dada."

Thanksgiving Weekend

I thought we would get the Thanksgiving weekend blog entry in before Christmas came around.

We kicked off the Thanksgiving weekend by watching the Macy's Day Parade. I had the girls all excited to watch the parade - we stayed in our PJs, put blankets and pillows down on the floor, and loaded up our bowls with good snacks only to watch cheesy dance numbers, commentators who talked too much, and commercials - lots of commercials.  I really think that Nick Jr. should air an edited version of the parade with the cool floats, featuring many appearances of the Dora float. However, the morning wasn't a complete waste since we did get to see the Dora float and the Sponge Bob balloon.

The weekend included a dance party.

And Tree Decorating

And last but not least -- movie night, complete with popcorn.

Fill'er Up

Watching Christmas Eve on Sesame Street - best Christmas movie ever.
Notice it didn't take long for Amelia to spill her popcorn. 



Family Photos Part Two

Our Trek to the Gardens

Last year we went to the Gardens for their Christmas exhibit. They are open late on Tuesday evenings, however I know they can get quite busy during the holiday season. We decided to go the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and found that it was a perfect night to go. They had their Christmas activities going on, however it wasn't too busy. We decided to make it our annual tradition.

This year it was a lot colder than it was last, so we didn't walk around outside, however we did stop on the way in so the girls could visit with Santa. They climbed right into the sleigh and sat on his lap. We then headed inside to see the trees and train exhibit.

This picture cracks me up - Allison looks freaked out and Amelia looks mad. Despite the looks of this picture, they really did have a good time. 

 They loved the train exhibit and we spent quite a bit of time there.

 After looking at the displays, the kids worked on a craft project.

 Allison was very proud of her work.

Amelia played blocks while Allison worked on her craft project.

Captured in Time

Earlier this fall, we had family photos taken by my friend Christina of  Closer to the Heart Photography.  We lucked out as the colors turned early this season. As you can see the background was gorgeous and the weather was perfect - well, maybe a little too perfect as the temps were in the high 70s, which was very warm for our outfits. 

Christina did an amazing job capturing our girls' personalities. I warned her ahead of time to be prepared to run and chase after them.  Luckily she has a fast shutter and small kids of her own, so she was ready to go.  Brian and I were exhausted by the end of the night and went to bed by 8:30 pm.

Here is a brief sampling of the pictures. I will post them in small batches over the next few days.  If you would like to see the vertical pictures better, you can click on the slide show to view it in full screen.