Holiday Festivities, Part 2

Another round of pictures from our holiday festivities!

December 6th was St. Nicholas Day.

This year on the Eve, the kids put out their old slippers that have been on the brink of toe-pinching because of their smallness...

...and St Nicholas replaced them with new slippers filled with a candy cane and clementine while they slept.

They also found a small wrapped gift by our Nativity Scene that morning.

Their current FAVORITE movie: Aristocats!

Modeling new slippers.

Another weeknight last week, we made a fun dessert after dinner. The kids had a bit of a sugar overload, I think, but they had fun. :)

We frosted some upside down sugar cones with green frosting to look like a Christmas tree. {Note: it's helpful to put a little frosting around the rim of the bottom to help it stick to the dish.) More frosting went in the mouth than on the tree. :)

{She still has food on her face from dinner too - lovely. }

This face cracks me up ;-)

And then we decorated the trees with "ornaments". :)

Time to eat them!

A yellow M&M served as our star.

On Saturday morning, we had our friends over for our 8th annual Pajama Brunch. It was fun and relaxing as usual. Everyone comes in pj's and we just eat yummy brunch food and hang out for the morning. This year's menu included: tropical lassis, sausage & egg casserole, Belgian waffles (brought/made by Jill), fruit salad, bacon, sweet rolls (made by Kelly) and juice (brought by Julie). I say this ALL THE TIME, but we have the best friends! Truly, they're awesome. And we always enjoy spending time with them.

Sophie monitoring the sweet rolls in the oven...

Tropical Lassi

This is the first year we've had to have a "kids table"! They're just getting too big to squeeze around our table that comfortably seats 8... when there are already 8 adults. :) Next year, we will welcome Cecelia's baby sister, Veronica Grace, who will be 11 months at that time! Hard to believe!

Cecelia & Sophia

My girl and me.

Since we dropped our adult gift exchange a couple years ago, our friends have continued to bring gifts for the kids each year which is so generous of them. Will could hardly sit still to finish his plate this morning. He knew he wasn't supposed to touch any of the gifts until we were all out in the living room and ready... but he "just wanted to be in the room with them". ;-)

The children's gifts this year were so thoughtful and perfect for them. They absolutely LOVED them!

A dinosaur puzzle and a flashlight for Will.

A jewelry box and three bracelets for Soph.

Soph and Celia got the same things. :)

A handmade tutu and butterfly wings from the Apple Butter Festival.

Twirling.

She wore and carried around her gifts all day except for nap time. :)

A dinosaur toy for Will.

A solar system placemat with facts on both sides.

Several good books...

...including the most intricate pop-up book the world has ever seen. Seriously, the pictures do not do justice. There is so much detail! The book is about Predators and Will is addicted.

We've always done a "girl picture" in our jammies each year: Kelly with Celia, Jill with Sophie, me and Julie with Brutus (who's a boy but oh well).

And a couple times now, we've organized a group pic, which I intend to continue from now on. I love these! Couples left to right: Mike & Jill, Kelly & Steve, Craig & I and Mike & Julie.

So cute.

Putting together the Melissa & Doug floor puzzle.

Our friends head home right at about nap time and the kids lay down for a snooze. We finally switched it this year to be on the 2nd Saturday (instead of 2nd Sunday) so it doesn't fall on the same day as another party we always go for Craig's mom's company. Soooo much nicer this way!

Will took an extra long nap this day, so Sophie and I decided on a "quiet activity" when she woke up before him: making "Snowball Cookies". Here, she's "measuring" one cup of walnuts... and eating one for every five she puts in the measuring cup.

Dumping into the food processor to grind and combine with the flour and cinnamon.

And then mixing the powdered sugar in with the butter and vanilla before combining all the dough together.

Scooping out onto parchment lined baking sheets.

And licking the egg-less batter from the spatula after.

Coolest part: sprinkling the "snow" (powdered sugar) onto the slightly cooled cookies.

YUM!

Will's half birthday was December 8th and we had been talking about "half birthdays" a lot for that reason. We never really celebrated Sophie's even though we acknowledged it. So Craig told the kids we would take them to Cold Stone Creamery for their first treat from that delightfully overpriced place. ;) (He didn't really say the last part.) And because we're geniuses, we decided to pick the coldest day of the season so far to venture out for ice cream. ;-)

Will got strawberry ice cream with chocolate chips and sprinkles and Sophie got peppermint/"candy cane" ice cream with sprinkles. They each shared some bites with Craig and I.

After our ice cream, we ventured over to Levis to see what pretty things they had out for holiday decorations. It. was. FREEZING!!! We only walked to the big tree and back before heading for home. :)

On Sunday morning, the kids got to work making thank you cards for our friends for the nice presents they received. Will wrote on the front and Sophie drew on the inside. Then they each put a brown thumbprint on the fronts and we let them dry.

I turned their thumbprints into reindeer with some antlers (marker), googly eyes and a tiny, coiled-up piece of red yarn glued on... and then added a message of thanks on the insides.

Later Sunday afternoon, we drove to Oak Shade Grove for the GBU kid's party. They ate, colored, saw Santa and received a really nice gift for each of them.

Poor Soph. After the flukey Bass Pro success with Santa, she is terrified now. She gets a petrified look on her face and is literally shaking with fear and trying stay as far away as possible. I tried to hold her behind Santa for one picture for Craig's parents, but you can see how well that turned out. Poor girl just hid her face.

Our lucky kids were so excited about the gift though! Will got a new Lego set with lots of tiny pieces and directions for a specific creation and Sophie got a cooking with Elmo (fridge magnet) toy set.

When we returned home, Sophie got right to work cooking me oatmeal cookies, spaghetti and an omelet. I was making my favorite tomato soup for dinner so I gave her a rinsed out paste container and an empty spice container to add to her pretend-play.

Will and I put together the base of his Legos set, which included several street signs and a toll station and road. Then daddy jumped in to help him assemble the two cars while I got dinner ready.

Less than two weeks till Christmas!! More festivities to come!