A very merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. The snow in Show Low was beautiful and fortunately, we had a window of no-storm travel time that allowed us to get up the mountain. We enjoyed lots of time with family and friends and although it was cold, we loved the snow (from inside). Brenna got what she wanted from Santa (including the mermaid Dora, some barbies and even a guitar when he visited Daddy's house) plus some! She must've been a very good girl this year! We were very thankful to be able to celebrate with Grandma, Papaw, Aunt Mamie, Uncle Josh and Rylan! Rylan was so much fun to be around (except for the spitting up) and Brenna loved to love on him. She sang to him and made him smile and we loved experiencing Christmas with them. We also did some annual traditions like doing puzzles and playing games - and of course eating!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Christmas traditions

Today we celebrated the season by baking some Christmas cookies and writing a letter to Santa. This was the first year that Brenna has written a letter to Santa and we are "emailing" it to him so it will get there in time.










Brenna loves helping me in the kitchen and always wants to stir or pour or touch whatever it is that I'm making. We baked cookies together last year and now it will hopefully be something we do together every year. When we first got started, we forgot to put on an apron, so she wiped floury hands all over her pants, then we got the apron out! She was very happy to roll out the dough, rub the flour on the cutting board and use the sprinkles. Can you tell which ones she sprinkled? :) The best part was getting to eat one at the end! After all the cookies were out of the oven and cooling, we went into the living room to write a letter to Santa. We attempted to visit him the other night, while Fry's was having a "Night out with Santa" event, but although she showed lots of interest, when it came time, she was not so courageous. But, I did get a picture of both of us with him! Here's her adorable letter to Santa (transcribed by mommy). Also, notice where she signed it, she knows the "B" and "r" but from there, it doesn't much resemble the letters of her name. Still precious!

In case you can't read it:

"Dear Santa, Hi dear Santa. Can you bring me a Barbie for Christmas? Can you bring me a mermaid doll for Christmas? A Dora mermaid doll. And a Christmas Bobber the Bill Christmas movie. Can I have a guitar, please can I have a guitar? Hey, I saw you at Fry's Santa. Why you were at Fry's? I was afraid when I got my picture. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Love, Brenna"