catching up on christmas

I've been blogging about Christmas for 6 weeks or so now but the holidays have come and gone so this should be the last one until Christmas 2008. We traveled to our home town and stayed for almost 3 weeks and got spoiled by both sets of grandparents. Riley was in heaven and enjoyed her aunts and uncle too! Emma was angelic and started to sleep in until a reasonable hour, except Christmas morning she woke up at 5:15am. How appropriate! She's jut like her mom and can hardly sleep for the excitement of Christmas morning.
Our trip was filled with wonderful Christmas traditions:

Eating fabulous fancy dinners
Riley is learning to drink from a tiny goblet

Making Christmas sugar cookies with Grandpa

Reenacting the nativity and reading Luke 2
Jessica and Michael are a camel w/hump, Emma is baby Jesus,
and Riley is a sheep

and of course new x-mas pj's to wear on x-mas eve.

Just a few of our holiday adventures:
We got spoiled rotten with fun gifts, lots of movies, shopping, going on dates and free babysitting from the grandparents. Unfortunately no snow where we were at all, so Riley still has yet to play in the snow and make a snowman--maybe next year. But we were grateful that we didn't have any adventures driving on the roads, especially over the pass. We helped Michael's dad find a wii for his mom and finally found one just in time on eBay. But little did we know that his mom had already bought one for his dad (she is the ultimate gift secret keeper and got bought it back in October which is much better than waiting until after Thanksgiving). So after Christmas was filled with games: Trivial Pursuit, Ticket to Ride (thanks Morgan & Jacob), pinochle, Guitar Hero, and Wii games (now I actually enjoy video games -- a select few).

wii wish you a Merry Christmas!

Riley and Emma have very talented aunts who made some of their gifts this year for the girls to share.

Auntie Monica made a knitted fire-breathing dragon
"Roar!" says Riley as she has fun scaring the whole family

this darling dress made with love for the girls by auntie Morgan--amazing!

the true meaning of Christmas. . .

So on Sunday morning I told Riley that we would get to sing Christmas songs at church today and how fun that would be, but then I wondered if she knew any Christmas songs that weren't about Santa. I started singing "Silent Night" but she belted out over me with "Jingle Bells". I started to wonder if we had gotten the whole story about Christmas across to Riley or if she only picked up the Santa & presents part. We have nativity scenes everywhere and she loves to play with baby Jesus and knows his mom's name is Mary. Lately she has surprised me with how fast she learns and retains information. This morning, I asked Riley what the true meaning of Christmas was and she replied excitingly, "Cookies!" Later during breakfast I asked her the same question, but this time she replied "Games!" We'll see what see says when we ask her during dinner.

Firsts

So it has been time for a few firsts for Riley and Emma. This is the first year they've met Santa . I can't believe Riley had never met or had pictures with Santa before! She wasn't too scared. She smiled some, but wouldn't talk to Santa at all. I'm so glad Santa visited our church x-mas party (saved us $20-30 to get pictures with Santa at the mall).
Riley had her first dental experience and she did great! We were home for the holidays and it worked out for me to clean her teeth at grandpa's dental office. She was scared to lay back in the chair alone, but once she sat on daddy's lap, she was perfect!
I think watching the Rudolph movie a lot lately helped because she really likes the elf that wants to be a dentist and really excited that grandpa is a dentist and that daddy will be one someday. She let me polish and floss, let grandpa count her teeth and then we even painted on a fluoride varnish. (don't worry, I normally wear a lab coat but I didn't want to get one dirty just with my own family's germs.)
These have been wonderful firsts and we are thrilled for Emma's first Christmas! We can't wait! She's started laughing lately--it's so cute!

she smiles!!!

Here is our darling Emma learning to smile! She just starting to do this since Thanksgiving and getting better at it all the time. We love seeing her mouth open up wide and sides curl up as she coos so sweetly.


Here her smiles look so darling, but they are actually mischievous, little does everyone know that she had a blowout 5 minutes ago, but she's in too many blankets and acting too happy for anyone to know about it.


















Emma is making some crazy face and what is she doing with her hand? Who taught her that?!? It must have been crazy Daddy and Uncle Steven. Riley would say, "so silly."

















PS . Finals are over and we are on Christmas vacation. Riley couldn't be happier to be a grandma & grandpa's house. Christmas is only 8 days away. The shopping and Christmas cards are 100% completed. Now those are things to smile about! (or as I have been known to say as a child "you can be glad about that!")

Winter Walks with d'Lights

The snow came and went after 24 hours but was followed by heavy rain for a few days. Now that the rain is gone and my parents are in town we've been outside often despite the cold. Near my sister's house across the lake is Garden d'Lights that we all went to. We had a great time wandering around the lights display at the botanical garden. There were all kinds of flowers, bushes, and trees made out of lights but also swans, peacocks, frogs and even a monkey in a banana tree. It was amazing and Riley loved it!

wow!

We also walked around a park along the water that is comprised of boardwalks over the wetlands out to the water. We saw a blue heron, ducks (despite ice along the water's edge) and even a bald eagle! It has been great getting out in the crisp, cold air after being inside with the girls for a few days. We got all bundled up and took Emma too. I know you can't see her, but she's in a front carrier or hiding asleep in the stroller. We're so lucky we can take her just about anywhere as long as we can work it around her feedings. Michael missed out on this adventure studying hard for finals--which will be over in less than a week!
The girls are still being as cute as ever. Riley is singing Christmas carols, helping make Christmas goodies, doing Christmas crafts and countdowns. She is constantly asking how soon we are going to grandma and grandpa's house and when is Santa coming. Christmas, christmas, christmas...it is soo fun! Happy Holidays! Here are some darling photos of our two little angels.

Snow

Today it snowed and those of you not familiar with Seattle might not think that blog worthy but it is here. Last winter it snowed repeatedly in January and that was VERY unusual. So to have it snow big fluffy flakes for hours on end and have it stick on December 1st is amazing. It happened while we were out Christmas shopping and on our way home it was so fun to see kids making snowmen (yes it snowed enough to make a snowman!). We kept Riley up without a nap after shopping to attend a Christmas Choir concert and we were a little worried about how she'd behave, but Santa was part of the show and Riley behaved angelically. The closer and closer Christmas gets the more Riley gets excited and the more we tell her about it. Lately we've been singing Christmas songs and I realized that this is a pretty parent-friendly holiday by encouraging kids to be good for presents--this is great. "You' better watch out, you better not cry, you'd better not pout..." There's nothing like employing scare tactics while singing a jolly tune to get everyone into the holiday spirit. I love Christmas songs. I love Christmas!!

Sorry, no pictures of snow but I couldn't post without a picture so this is one of our family surrounded by the cool Christmas decor at my mom's store, NestFeathers.