fa la la la laaaaaa la la la laaaaaaaaaaaa!

I was very, very, very excited for this Christmas. Last year is a bit of a blur since Max was so tiny, but this year I knew both kids would be old enough to at least enjoy a lot of it.




On Christmas Eve we wore the kids out sledding--for the record we only went down the hill twice before the fun was not fun anymore. (Anna had snow in her boots and on her nose), but it was enough to wear them right out. Max fell asleep in the car and Anna on the couch when we got home.
Before bed, Anna helped me make a birthday cake so we could remember that it was baby Jesus's birthday. (Just a really cool thing--we made the cake in my Pampered Chef Microwave Rice Cooker that I gave myself for Christmas and it was amazing. You just spray the cooker, poor in the mix and mix ingredients, and microwave for 8 minutes, and you have a cake.)

Santa put some little Dora the Explorer people in Anna's stocking. (This is Anna's smile-for-the-camera smile, luckily it's a little different than her really happy smile.

Max in his new chair reading his favorite monkey book.

Bath time with new bath toys.

Merry Christmas!!!

Birthday Boy

Ten things I want to remember about one-year-old Max
1. His pats on the back when I ask him for a love
2. His happy, happy face with the wrinkled nose
3. His enthusiastic kisses (sometimes resulting in bites)
4. His "broom broom" noise
5. His fake-out-fall-down just to be a funny guy.
6. His high-stepping walk that's lately evolved into a run
7. His original worried face
8. His fuzzy hair
9. His real laugh and his fake laugh.
10. His attack and destroy cry

The Holidays Began

Possibly my favorite moment of Thanksgiving weekend was when Anna helped Grandma and Grandpa wash blueberries for breakfast. She was taking her job very seriously and was on probably at least her twelfth berry, when Grandma told her she could put some in her mouth if she wanted to. A few minutes later she told us all, "I not eating them, I just licking them". Oh good.

We had so much fun the whole weekend. I am feeling happy just remembering it now. The kids were so sweet, and it was really fun to all be together. Other highlights (besides of course the extremely delicious and BEAUTIFUL Thanksgiving dinner) were 1)playing--games, Turkey Bowl in the back yard, and basketball at the church, 2) holding our own musical session--I can't remember what this was called, but everyone who had an instrument played it together and we made Anna cry. I hadn't played my flute for probably five years so I almost cried too. I don't know if I can technically still claim that as skill of mine. I really loved all of us playing together, though. 3) I have to also add, that we bought a DVD player for the car at Black Friday sales and THAT was SO WORTH IT.

So all in all a wonderful Thanksgiving. Oh, and here's something I've learned from Thanksgivings with the Davises: including stuffing on your Turkey leftover sandwiches is DELICIOUS, oh, and eating pie for breakfast, also DELICIOUS.