Holiday fun

I've been bad about updating this blog and one of my goals for this year is to be more frequent about it. It looks like I only posted 10 updates last year so I don't know if anyone even bothers to check it anymore! But if so, here are some highlights from our holidays...

In early November Autumn lost both front teeth. It took a while...one was literally hanging by a string but they essentially "fell" out of her mouth. No pulling or any potential of pain for this kid! So of course we all began singing about 2 front teeth and Christmas for a while.

At Thanksgiving we celebrated with Chris' Dad and family and all the boys made Mommom's (Chris' grandmother's)  famous candy cane cookies. MomMom has been gone for over 7 years so it was nice for them to remember what one of her treats tasted like.

We visited Santa at Christkindlmarkt for the 3rd year in the row.  Apparently this is the real Santa and all the others that we might see are his helpers.  Autumn pointed out that all of her wish list gifts began with the letter "S"...a suitcase, scoop ( a board game), and a surprise. Joshua's gifts began with "T"...Toy Story 3 movie, Toy Story 3 Toys and a tractor. Very convenient for Santa.

Hard to believe that our nephew Daniel is one already. His birthday party was fun. Look at that happy guy!

I helped out in Autumn's classroom a week before Christmas as they were making gingerbread houses. It was my first opportunity to spend an extended period of time in the classroom and see how they interact with their Spanish curriculum. You can see her here in the front of the room with the classroom rules next to her. Luckily she can understand most of what the teachers say and was able to translate for me. :-)

Her finished product!

On December 18th we went to see the Nutcracker with Carolyn and Brooke. We went out to lunch first and had a fun girls day.

Autumn received some baking tools from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jeremy which she opened Christmas Eve morning. We had to head home and bake cookies that afternoon to leave them out for Santa.

After church Christmas Eve we had a lovely dinner and fun time at Chris' moms. Our outfits were provided by her too....don't we look festive?

The kids waited in the basement while Santa did his magic under MomMom's tree.

Santa brought Joshua a new bike at MomMom's - what fun!

Reading 'The Night Before Christmas'

Christmas Morning! Autumn was thrilled to receive some new board games.

Santa answered Joshua's wish with an RC Toy Story car.

The "surprise" for Autumn was in the basement...a cardboard playhouse she can color with markers. Joshua got a spaceship.

Joshua also got a little bag of coal in his stocking with a note from Santa asking him to listen a little better to Mommy and Daddy. It made quite the impression as he cried. Uncle Robbie reassured him that a little bag was nothing...he got a whole stocking full of coal one year.

We had Christmas dinner with the Landis clan this past Sunday. We had fun making gingerbread cookies together.

Autumn won the prize for the most candy.

All of our creations.

All in all, an excellent Christmas. We are happy for a new year to enjoy each other as a family!