It's Beginning To Look a Lot like Christmas

Finally! I have been getting to the Christmas traditions and decorating. The test prep and exam itself put me behind!

We are watching the movies: A Christmas Carol (Reginald Owens) and Miracle on 34th Street. Mandy complained the movies didn't have color and they would be boring, but then she totally got involved in the movies. We have watched the Disney's A Christmas Carol which is actually frightening even for us adults. We will be moving on to Charlie Brown Christmas Carol and The Ref this weekend.

I finally made Ken's favorite cookie: Pfeffernusse!! He had patiently waited for me to get to it and then proceeded to eat 1/3 of the cookies.

The making of the Pfeffernusse!

These two fell victim to Ken having them while warm!

I enjoyed taking a picture of Addie this year to compare with the picture I took of her last year. What a difference a year makes!

Addie - 17 Dec 2010

Addie - 17 Dec 2011

Finally!  Decorated and presents wrapped!  Notice Addie trying to find a way to get under the tree

Christmas cards went out this week and the inside of the house, and now I just have to fight Ken to decorate the outside of the house.  I was able to get the Winter centerpiece finished, and it looks pretty good for Christmas.  I'll change the colors of the bow for January, but the girls love that they could help out a bit with it.

We have a week until Christmas and I'm almost ready. It's been busy constantly, but I'm almost rewarded for my effort. Let's see if I can get the stocking holders stitched and ready.


The girls had their holiday performances.  Taylor is too grown up to have a holiday performance, so we only had two this year.  Mandy's grade did more of a hip-hop rap theme which I did not personally care for, but Mandy practiced very hard for her ballet performance.  She did very well, and I love that she has retained so much of the few lessons she got.

Jordan's performance was later in the week, and this was more like the holiday performance that I expected:  a bunch of little kids trying to remember words while decorated with self-made hats.  It's always such great fun as the parent to try to find your kid behind a hat.  Jordan did not sing the "extra" lines, and she was very well behaved this year.  As you can see by her smile, she had a great time.

I kept trying to get her when she curtsied at the end of each song.
This was the closest I got!