Santa is coming!

Brenna is much more aware of Santa this year. When he visited the daycare last week, she says she wasn't scared (I got a different story from the teachers). In the picture, she doesn't look happy but she doesn't look scared either. Regardless, she is very excited for him to come. We have been listening to lots of Christmas carols and when she hears "Santa Claus is coming to town" she starts yelling, "Santa is coming!" It is so magical to experience this holiday through her eyes - like we are children again ourselves. She sings "Jingle Bells" and "Frosty the Snowman" and loves carrying her stuffed Santa around (sometimes he goes to timeout, but most of the time, he gets to play with her).

We are trying to also teach her the real reason for the season. I've explained that baby Jesus was born on Christmas. She got excited and started singing "happy birthday baby Jesus" - adorable. She is learning about giving gifts to those in need - we adopted a family at work and she has helped me shop for them. After I explained that they needed shoes, she thought she was getting shoes, but then said, "I have lots of shoes" and I explained that this family didn't have any shoes. She seemed to understand!

Stay tuned for more holiday fun! Hope everyone has a magical Christmas like we are!

Cookie Time

The holidays (read Halloween through New Years) are the worst time for anyone watching their waistline - all the sweets make it impossible to avoid eating more candy, cookies, cakes and pies than you should. That said, we participated in that good ole holiday tradition of baking Christmas cookies today (not really much waistline watching going on here right now, that'll come after the new year). Brenna got to help (really help) this year and she LOVED it! We pulled out some traditionally shaped cookie cutters and set up the kitchen table for easier access to a toddler. She really got into the project, she helped spread the flour on the cutting board, pushed the cookie cutter into the dough and with a "ugh" pushed it in hard, and sprinkled the decorations. She also enjoyed eating the results (duh!). The picture looks like she is really savoring the taste doesn't it? Stay tuned for more fun holiday activities!

Thankful

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful and although we are late posting the goings-on of that weekend, it is not too late to tell you all how thankful we are for what we have! Thanksgiving weekend allowed us to visit with family and spend time together having fun as a family. We decorated the house for Christmas - inside and out (I think we are the local Griswold family now). We even hit the stores for some of the sales - what a crazy idea.

As we get closer to Christmas and hear all the stories of families in need, we are so grateful to have a home, great jobs, vehicles in good condition, clothing and food and all the things we need. Not to mention lots of extras that we don't need, but like to have. We had a trip to urgent care this weekend that, thankfully, was very minor. Brenna's elbow was popped out of socket (easily fixed by the doctor with no follow up care needed). We are very grateful for our health and are trying every day to pay extra attention to the things that we do have (many that we take for granted) when so many others are without.

On a lighter note - we also like to share the fun that Brenna is bringing to our lives these days. Here are some fun highlights:

• She loves playdough right now - we regularly hear, "Mommy (or Daddy), play playdough wif meeeeee." She makes pizza, cookies, snowmen, balls, snakes and all kinds of funny things.


• She has been acting like a puppy for the last couple of days. She wants us to refer to her as "puppy" and crawls on all fours with her tongue hanging out, panting.


• The other night, while acting like quite the ham, Daddy asked her if she was being ostentatious and her reply was "no, I not ostentatious" We laughed, but she said it very well! Her vocabulary (and her attempts to say big words) sometimes shocks us!


• She is completely delighted by the Christmas lights around the neighborhood and asks me where they are in the morning (since it is dark when we leave the house).

We look forward to visiting with more friends and family this holiday season and hope to hear from you all!