Snowman Family

Em makes a lot of craft projects at school (and home), and I don't always try to keep them, but this one seemed pretty special.  Her teachers were so proud of it, and showed it to me one afternoon when I got there to pick her up--they were playing with modeling clay, and Em sculpted this whole family of snowmen, complete with accessories.  Unfortunately, they fell apart a little, so I wanted to keep at least the picture to remember how cool they were :).

Christmas

This was the first Christmas that we spent away from home since Em was born--and she was most concerned that Santa wouldn't know where to find her at Grandma's.  We went to Christmas Eve mass and came back home for dinner.  Em excitedly picked out the cookies to leave for Santa, and then decided to sample some too.

The next morning when we got up, we thought Em would sleep forever!  She finally woke up and excitedly came in to see the presents around the tree.

                                      

She went for the stocking first--and was most excited about the chocolate!

                                   

She had asked Santa for a bow and arrow of course, and she ended up with two!  It was her favorite gift of the day though, for sure.  She took it outside for some target practice.

                                   

Later that day, after Uncle Robbie and Stacy got there, we all exchanged gifts together.  Grandma Lala gave Em this bear that she named Cranberry.

And Uncle Robbie and Stacy gave Em some princess dresses that she pretty much wore for the rest of the trip!

There was plenty of time to spend with everyone, including snuggle time with Lala,

play time with Landon and Zachary,

and with Papa.

Hugs with Grandma!

I'm actually not sure where this Rudolph nose came from, but Em loved it!

She loves playing with her cousins,

and they're very patient with her, considering the age difference.

We took them to a nearby playground the day after Christmas since it was a little warmer--she tries so hard to keep up with them!

Later, it was back in a princess dress for Em,

 and she fixed Grandma's hair with a clip before the picture :).

We left to come home on Friday, and started taking down our Christmas stuff over the weekend.  Sad to see it all go, and can't believe we'll be celebrating with a 4-year old next year!

Last Minute Preparations

I was off work on Monday, and Em really wanted to stay home with me, so I decided we could have a fun day together getting ready for our trip.  Buckeyes are one of my traditions that I almost always make at Christmas, and Em was really excited to help with them.  She did a great job dipping in the chocolate, 

of course, I'm sure her motivation was knowing she'd be testing them when we finished!

And she did :).

Later that day, we went for pedicures together, which was a lot of fun.  Even the lady who did her nails took a picture of her!

This was before she got little snowflakes painted on her big toes--she was very excited, to say the least.

We were leaving for Brunswick on Christmas Eve, so Elfie brought Em an early present before he headed back to the North Pole to help Santa load his sleigh.  He wrote her a note about what a nice girl she was and how much he liked being her elf.  In the box was lots of goodies for her to enjoy on our road trip--snacks, books, a new movie, some Christmas PJs, and a cozy bathrobe.

I'm not sure if Santa will be able to outdo this--she was pretty thrilled with Elfie's surprise.

One More Visit with Santa

I've heard so many good things about Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden at Christmas, and I really wanted us to go this year--we sort of just ran out of weekends--so we decided to go Sunday night.  I planned to take Monday off to get ready for our trip to Brunswick, so Em didn't have to get up early the next morning.  The weather was not ideal--it was rainy, but we decided that might have been a good thing because there were very few people there.

Santa was great--he spent a lot of time with Em, and they talked all about the nice and naughty lists.

She had been on our naughty list on and off on Sunday, so she was a little concerned that Santa knew everything.

Luckily, he told her he did, and that he had been talking to Elfie :).

He also told us that he had seen over 500 kids the night before...so that reassured us that we chose the right night!  When Em was done with her chat, she made an ornament that she got to write her name on (which she's really good at now) and paint.

She LOVES to paint, so she was completely content staying inside while it rained.

We brought snacks, and there was a piano player in the main ballroom area,so we hung out there for a little while before touring the gardens a little under umbrellas.

My camera has now completely quit working, so the only pictures I got were with my phone.

There were really some beautiful lights around the gardens, so hopefully we'll make it back next year when the weather is better!

Christmas at Blakeney

On Saturday night, we went to the Christmas events at Blakeney Shopping Center, where Santa and his friends were making an appearance, and there are always lots of fun things to do for the kids.  We ran into Aamani, one of Em's friends from school--this is the best picture I could get of them since they were both so excited to see each other (and Santa!).

We stood in line for Em to sit with Santa and tell him about the bow and arrow and alligator she wanted him to bring her for Christmas.

Then we caught a few other cute shots of her, even though my camera is acting a little strange.

She was very proud of her fancy Christmas dress!

She made sure she saw Rudolph, Frosty and even Mickey Mouse made an appearance!  Not sure what's going on with my camera, but I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted to.

Creativity

I haven't caught up on Emily's silly little sayings in a while, and I've been trying to jot down notes when I think of it.  Here are some of the latest:

• when I wake Em up on school mornings, she usually likes to hold my hand when we walk down the stairs--one morning, she said "Mommy, can we have a bow?"  I didn't know what she meant, and she said "you know, when we finish at the same time," and I said "you mean a tie?"  She said "oh yeah, a tie!"  Pretty smart that she remembered what the word meant and changed it out.
• we were grocery shopping one weekend and in the produce section, Em asked if we could get some Grandma Smith apples.  I said "you mean Granny Smith?" and she replied, "well that's the nickname."
• Em loves superheroes, and one morning on the way to school when I asked her what music she wanted to hear, she said "Batman radio."  I told her I didn't have Batman radio, and she quickly replied that she had it--so she proceeded to turn on her imaginary radio and sing a song about Batman all the way there!
• on Halloween, the teachers sent home a note asking for no weapons of any kind on costumes--when I told Em she wouldn't be able to have her sword in her Peter Pan belt, she asked why.  I told her that even pretend weapons could be dangerous, and we needed to follow the rules.  She didn't miss a beat, and responded "well Captain Hook doesn't follow the rules!"  Clearly, she was worried that her number one rival would be armed, and she wouldn't be.
• this last week, Em has been fighting a cold and has been such a trooper--but she's a little hoarse and has lost a little of her voice.  The other day, she couldn't use her little high-pitched squeal, and said "hey, I lost my squeak!"  It was so cute :).

One of Em's favorite things to do is play dress up, and she'll often go in her playroom and tell me not to look at what she's doing.  Then she'll want to come in and surprise us with what she's wearing.  One afternoon, she came out in half of her Peter Pan Halloween costume!  She had the tights and shoes on over her pants, and had even put the belt on!

She was quite proud.

Christmas Crafts

Christmas is such a fun time to make lots of crafts!  We have been busy with clothespin reindeer, decorated trees and snowmen!

These are a couple that Em made by herself.

One morning, we made gingerbread men!  We decided not to do the house this year, but the cookies were a lot of fun.  She loves helping in the kitchen, and the flour, rolling pin and cookie cutters make this a perfect job for her!

I'm not sure if she enjoyed making them or decorating them more.  She did a great job at both though, and it was a lot of fun.

Here are some of our finished products.  I think she ate more icing and sprinkles than she put on the cookies, but I was expecting that.

I really wish we had more weekends to do all the great Christmas baking, crafts and projects on top of going to all the events, seeing all the shows, lights and other fun things.  Not enough time between Thanksgiving and Christmas!  We'll have to plan some different things next year :).



Christmasville



On Saturday, Rock Hill, SC became Christmasville, with a huge Christmas festival that we had been looking forward to for a few weeks. It was absolutely COLD outside, and we bundled up and had a great time.

What more could you ask for--Rapunzel doing face painting!

Em, of course, opted for Rudolph.

Santa came through and had a jingle bell parade, where all the kids were able to pick out jingle bells and ring them as they marched in the parade.

Em would have jingled all day long--she loves the bells!

 There was also a carousel, which she always loves.

And her current favorite storybook character...the Grinch!

There was a short show where he read the Dr. Seuss book (adapted slightly for Christmasville).

And then to the pony rides!

This was a pretty neat feature that we couldn't have talked Em out of if we'd tried.  Ice skating!  There was a rink set up with some kind of silicone blocks that had the exact texture of ice or glass, and she couldn't wait to try it out.

Once she got the hang of moving her feet with the heavy skates, she did pretty well!

There were carolers and other characters dressed up, and this soldier was one of her favorites.

It was such a fun day, and the weather really made it feel like Christmas!