Cookies

While it's been snowing, I've been baking my Christmas Cookies. I baked a tray of cookies for Oscar co-workers and another package for Luli's cookie exchange for school, and we are left with about a gazillion leftovers. The picture is of the tray for Oscar's work, it's a sampling of what I made...chocolate chip cookie bars, raspberry pinwheels and lemon glazed shortbread cookies. The girls are eyeing them closely, they even asked to forgo their advent treat for a cookie!

Documenting a Snow Storm, Part II

The deck at 2pm.

As of 5:15pm we have at least 20 inches and it's still snowing pretty hard. We just went out as a family to play and shovel. It was as if we'd done no shovelling earlier! Fiona wasn't a big fan of the super deep snow because she's pretty small and couldn't really move in it. Luli on the other hand is a little explorer!

After we had some paths cleared Fiona relaxed a bit and enjoyed making lots of "seats" around the paths.

Oscar and Luli enjoyed making a snow tunnel fort, which I think will get more work tomorrow when the snow isn't blowing right in your face and covering anything you've just cleared.

All in all it's a pretty unbelievable storm we're having, definitely reminds me of upstate NY!

Girls in the Snow

Here are some pictures of the girls bundled up and playing in the snow. We were much more prepared for this storm. I purchased winter coats, boots and hats last week, so everyone stayed nice and toasty outside playing. Luli lasted longer than Fiona did. Fiona did not care for the snow falling in her face. But Luli stayed out as long as Oscar did. Both girls did need new gloves put on around half way through the fun.

Merry Christmas

We've had a lovely Christmas celebration for the past few days. Arriving in NY on Tuesday evening, a long car ride but all in all the girls were well behaved. Christmas eve we spent at Aunt Peggy's house exchanging extended family presents and enjoying a reunion of family. The girls dressed in their holiday dresses and were really adorable. They were very good and enjoyed all of the new toys and clothes they received.

The girls were very excited for Santa to come and didn't nap at all on Christmas eve, which led to a very easy bedtime, they fell asleep on the drive home. We baked some chocolate chip cookies for Santa and I made sure to get them out for him, even though the girls had fallen asleep.

Christmas morning the girls gave the adults a treat by sleeping in until 8am! Actually Fiona was still asleep when Nahnah went in their room, and Luli quickly fixed that. Luli wanted everyone up and downstairs to see if Santa had indeed arrived! She was so excited and her reaction has been preserved on the video camera, it was pretty special. Fiona was still quite sleepy and a little slower than Luli.

They loved their new bathrobes that Santa made for them (I still need to get a picture of them both in them), they also got a parachute, a lite bright, and beads from Santa. Nahnah and Pahpah out did themselves with all the fun presents, lots of books, fairies, polly pockets, handmade baby beds, and Nahnah made a beautiful dollhouse! Santa also thought the girls would enjoy my cabbage patch kids (thanks for that idea Kathy!), so a basket of those were waiting also. All in all the girls had a great time and we've been opening new toys daily.

I'll be adding pictures to a new album on the side as we get them. My brother took some beautiful pictures and I hope to upload those tomorrow.

We hope you all had lovely holidays also...feel free to share your experiences in our comments, we love to hear from you!

Funny things Luli has said...

My Mom reminded me I should write down some of the hilarious things Luli has said recently.

Oscar asked Luli to do something one day and she wasn't doing it, so he asked her a second time, to which she responded "Daddy, you need to have some patience!"

Then a couple nights ago Oscar told the girls it was time to stop playing and head upstairs to bed, to which Luli responded "I'm never going to play with you again. I DO NOT like your attitude Daddy." This was pretty naughty but it surprised us both so much that we laughed a lot.

Some Santa related questions:
"Mommy why is Santa's belt on his coat and not his pants?"
"Mommy how will Santa get out of our fireplace?" (because it's gas and doesn't open)
"Mommy how will Santa find our tree if he comes in the fireplace downstairs?" (the fireplace is on the lower level, and the tree is on the main level)
"Mommy what do reindeer eat?" (she's always interested in what animals eat)

Playing under the Tree

The girls are quite obsessed with playing near the Christmas tree. It is apparently Polly Pocket's new favorite place to live, work and play. She hikes in the tree, naps in the tree, drives her car around the tree, plays with all her friends (ornaments) in the tree.

Fiona has also discovered she can see her reflection in some of the ornaments, and that was a huge delight.

Letters to Santa

As dictated by both girls:

Dear Santa,
I love you Santa. I want to sing you the ABCs. I want a toy snowman, a toy horse, an inside hopscotch game, a bathrobe, craft things and a toy sewing machine, I also want a real fish with fish tank.

I would like to play with you. I will bake cookies for you when you come to our house. I'm going to make you blueberry cookies with sprinkles.

Thank you for all of the presents Santa.
Love
Lourdes (she signed her name herself)
PS: I want to name my fish Rudolph
I also forgot I want Polly Pockets

Dear Santa,
Meno
Real Fish
Polly Pocket

Love,
Fiona (she signed her name with some assistance)

NOTE: Luli totally cracks me up because some things I have no idea where she gets them from. But when she said her own sewing machine I teared up because that was totally from the heart. She wants me to teach her to sew and I told her I will when she's older. I let both girls take turns sitting on my lap while I sew so they can see how it works and they love it.

Fiona's letter is just a list, the girl can't put a letter together yet- what do you expect of her! Meno means Nemo, it's just how she's said it since seeing the movie. And I think we have enough Meno around that he may not make it into Santa's bag :)

Advent Calendar

Today the girls and I made our Advent Calendar. In retrospect there is one thing I would change...but I digress. We made a big Christmas tree and the girls drew ornaments to put the numbers on. I numbered them 1-25 with glue and then we glittered them like crazy! I decided to end with the star and numbered that 25. I'm wondering if I should have numbered that 1 to finish with? oh well, too late now! We've put our first ornament on and when it's all decorated (Christmas day) we'll post a finished picture of it...maybe one half way through too. Enjoy!

Great Weekend and Holiday Decorations

Can I first say how much I love long weekends with my husband? It's been so great to be a full family for four straight days! We've had a lot of fun and I'm sure Monday will be an adjustment for each of us. Thursday we shared a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with my Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom and cousin Evan. Dinner was super yummy and catching up was even more fun.

On Friday we had a lazy morning and then went to the gym. The girls played in the kids club and Oscar and I had a nice workout. After our workout the girls ate lunch in the car and we decided to try our first car wash experience. We'd talked about it for a few days prior and what was going to happen and how exciting it was. It started off iffy, Fiona had a very frightened face, but we kept up the excitement and eventually she was saying "Hi" to all the machines and laughing. It was very positive and both girls want to go again.

Saturday we had a nice lazy day again but were productive around the house. Oscar was cleaning up a storm and I headed to a friend's Mary Kay Party. When I returned I worked more on the Christmas tree (I was restringing the lights on our pre-lit tree because some had gone out...that's an undertaking!)

Sunday morning we did some family hanging out, and videoing. I worked more on the Christmas tree and getting the decorations ready. When the girls got up from nap time they helped me put all the ornaments on the tree. I was pretty happy with the tree because I was able to go the ball ornament route and the old wooden ornaments I received from my mother. I have many glass bulbs that were also my grandmothers and I've wanted to do a full antique bulb tree. Thanks to a huge sale at Joann's Fabrics I got some nice shatterproof ornaments which blend well with my antiques. Overall it's a beautiful look. I used some of the ornaments that didn't go on the tree to decorate my chandelier...looks interesting (idea inspired by Real Simple).

For the Finishing touch both girls put the star on top of the tree.