Thurs. Dec. 12, 2013 - Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2 little elves decorating our tree

 Beautiful!

 And so it begins

 Riley requested a special tree for her room. Given how much I love decorating for Christmas, it wasn't a hard sell.

 She did this one all by herself and did a great job

 Micaela loves to diaper her babies

Mitchell, our Elf on the Shelf, looking very Iron Maiden

 Micaela is an excellent gift-wrapping assistant

 We had a play date with Riley's friend, Stella

 Our fabulous graham cracker houses

I love creating with my girls

 Time to go see Santa

 They liked looking at all the decorations

 Riley skipped right up to him and started rattling off her list

 Again this year, Micaela was less impressed

But she looked adorable in the Santa dress she received from her great-grandparents and got a lot of compliments and candy canes as she walked through the mall

 Micaela was very happy during her 2 year photoshoot

 Our happy toddler

 Classic Micaela

 Poor Seamus

 It was a balmy 10 degrees (it really did seem warm compared to the days when our high was 0) so we played outside

 Of course we needed hot coco when we came back inside

 Micaela dumped a brand new bottle of bubbles into the tub so it was a very bubbly bath night

Both girls were very proud of the blue ribbons they earned in gymnastics; both advanced to the next level!

When we returned from our Thanksgiving trip to Illinois we started getting the house ready for Christmas. We chose a very nice frasier fir that the girls enjoyed decorating. I always love getting out our Christmas decorations but I admit, its been a little more stressful this year. Riley and Micaela have both broken several ornaments, they fight over the beads and garland and step on the lights. Riley's breaks are always an accident but Micaela's are usually just her being destructive. She grabbed our beautiful Cinderella ornament and said, "Fireplace!" I thought she wanted me to tell her about Cinderella and the cinders. Nope. She went over to the fireplace and banged poor Cinderella on the bricks until her feet came off. I have been very patient, but I also finished the tree by myself after the kids went to bed. 

We have had fun doing other Christmas activities. When I was little my Mom made these cute little "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers and I thought this would be an entertaining project for us. I put some houses together for Micaela, Riley and Stella, a friend from school. The girls had so much fun covering them in icing and adding M&Ms, gumdrops and candy. They did a great job and we have adorable little houses that we've been nibbling on ever since.

Our visit with Santa went, well, pretty much like last year. Riley climbed right up on his lap and gave him her list (including green socks with red toes and heels….has anyone seen those? I can't find anything that specific in kid sizes!) while Micaela watched warily from a distance. Eventually we made her get on his lap, she screamed and we took pictures. She's a very friendly, happy little girl but not a fan of Santa. 

Last year Chad somehow managed to schedule his business trips such that he often flew out hours before a storm blew in. This year, right on cue, Chad left for a week-long trip to Atlanta on Monday morning and the weather immediately turned bitterly cold. To his credit, he got up at 4 am and scooped most of the snow before his 6 am flight so I only had to shovel once while he was gone. But yesterday the high was 0. After our first winter in Wisconsin last year I'm a little more prepared but its still a shock. We play outside when we can to burn a little energy. The cold doesn't seem to bother Riley; she stays out until we make her come in, but Micaela usually heads for the garage after 10 minutes. They both like playing in the snow and getting pulled in the sled. Its fun, as long as the temperatures are in double digits.