Kids...

This is the old school bus, and little people I used to play with as a child.

Now my girls are playing with this Fisher Price toy.

They're using it to skateboard...

Avant Garde Gal and Dauntless Daughter...

Just the other day AGG took one of my thank you note card packs and wrapped it up in wrapping paper. She then wrote "To Mommy, Love Santa". She then explained that it was a gift from Santa - not her. Is this her subconscious telling her the "truth" about Santa? Or is this her little genius intuition? Whatever it is... she's a treasure.

Lately DD has been saying "but it takes too long!" when we ask her to finish eating her food. She says it takes too long when she feeds herself. She's been getting me to feed her... because she knows I'm a pushover when it comes to my kids. In fact today, when she wanted me to stand next to her while she washed her hands after using the bathroom, she fluttered her arms like a butterfly and smiled as she said, "that makes you smile momma." Yes, yes it does...and it instantly makes me less frustrated or irritated too...and she knows it.

I adore my smart cookies.

It's beginning to LOOK a lot like...

SNOW!!!


No joke... in Nor. Calif.
I love living here because usually the snow doesn't come to me... I get the choice of going to the snow. This morning... the snow decided to make itself at home.

And...my girls are thrilled it did.

AGG quotes this morning: "It's a special day!!!" "It looks like sugar! Is sugar cold? Look! It looks like there's sugar on my house."

"Do you make snow out of coconut?" She's quoting a tv show.

When DD woke up she looked out the front windows all excited and said, "That's not a lot of snow!" So we took her to the back windows and she said "wow, that's a lot of snow! Is Santa coming?"

After we'd finished our snow activities outside she asked, "Can I go out and taste the snow now, please?"

...secretly... I had a blast too.




The girls are pretending the snowman is their brother.



Then it was time to go in and watch Elf, have hot cocoa with fresh whipping cream, cinnamon pancakes, and bacon... mmm.








This is what has been keeping us in the Christmas spirit pre-snow.

Pink Sugar Cookies

Advent calendar village

One-of-a-kind Calendars

Words of the season

Centerpieces

Tiny nativities
(ps. DD already broke Joseph's head...it has been glue-gunned on - Joseph...first casualty of Christmas)

Olive wood, 9-year-old Nativity from Jerusalem

Enacting the nativity

Birth

Today we had a special Relief Society meeting. The ladies did a reading of the women in Christ's life. The line that has stuck with me, is that Christ's birth, wasn't just the birth of our Savior. It was the birth of a way of life.

...I think that's what I'll be thinking about over the next few weeks preceding Christmas.

...I can't wait to watch this tonight. The First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

25 Free Presents

Amazon is giving away free Christmas music each day... Enjoy!!!

... just listen before you get it...

Merry Christmas!

Let's go Fly a Kite

...up to the highest height...

Saturday after Thanksgiving was lovely... after we'd cleaned up the house, jumped on the tramp, made a kitty house under the tramp... we decided to take them to fly a kite ... we're up in the hills ...and it gets windy up here. The weather was in the 60s... and because we're weather wimps...we bundled up.

...and I think... I think my girls are excited. I have no idea where they get their personalities from... (hehehe)

Yes, it's the end of November

Happy 1st of December... we're sooooooooo excited for Christmas, there's not enough 'o's in the world to put after the 's'. Since the girls have been listening to Christmas music since the summer... they are constantly singing their little Christmas hearts out. And...is it me, but the Christmas season makes me feel a little more patient with drivers on the road. I'm a nicer driver in December. It's the little the things...