December

Of course, most of December was in preparation for Christmas.  It involved two cooking sessions of Christmas cookies, and a great time looking for presents for the little ladies.  We had our first artificial tree this year and the smell was replaced with pine scented candles.  

Katy had her holiday program which was really cute.  She has a menorah on her head made from her hand prints.  

We also finally got the girls a decent bed, bunk beads to be exact, built by my father-in-law, designed my my husband!  Painted white with brand new sheets from Grandmama and Papa.  The girls were super excited and we have had no problems putting them to bed since!

piecing the bed together

katy took the pictures while we were watching them put everything together

the proud sleepers

 For Christmas, I decided to try a pinterest project (melting the crayons with the hair dryer) as a present for Gera...didn't quite work as my hair dryer was way to powerful and mixed all the colors together.  That and we had a hard time keeping the left over, cut crayon pieces in place.  Here the girls are proudly holding up their creations.

E for Elena

K for Katy

 Can you guess which one we did first?

Of course boxes continue to be the best and cheapest toys.  With all the Christmas excitement there were lots to go around.  The hardest part is helping the girls separate the truth about Jesus from the fantasy of Santa.  Many mornings there was the discussion about Santa being real and what Katy should say to her classmates so as not to dash the dreams of kids (and parents too).  Also keeping the focus on the real meaning of Christmas and not just receiving gifts - although for a 2 year old everything is just new.

Being on vacation, the girls got to spend a lot more play time together.  At first it was a challenge as they learned how to get along and communicate - Elena is still working on her pronunciation.  After the first week, they figured it out and got a long pretty well, especially once Katy learned to decipher what Elena was saying:)

 Now that Gera is unemployed, he is spending a lot more time with the girls, especially Elena since she's not in school yet.  That has exposed my little lady to Daddy's taste for coffee:) not that either of them need the caffeine!

morning coffee with daddy

 We needed to do two sessions of Christmas cookies - the early one for Mommy's coworkers and the later one for friends at church.  The girls are all dressed and ready to help with their hair pulled back and aprons on.  With Elena's allergies I have to watch her like a hawk so that she doesn't put anything in her mouth - especially chocolate.  This year I made her special dairy free cookies so that she could enjoy the delight of Christmas cookies as well - the don't taste the same, but she doesn't know that;)

unwrapping the chocolate kisses

 THis is the second year our friends Nancy and Fede have come to help with the decorating.

a bird's eye view of the holiday delight

 Christmas Eve was spent at my in-law's house.  We ate some yummy food, enjoyed family company and just had a good time.

Tia Monica and Tio Daniel

Gera with the three grandkids

Ever wonder what to do without a corkscrew?

 Christmas morning we "slept in" as much as you can with little kids in the house.  It was Elena's first really Christmas so it was fun watching her connect all the dots with the activities that had been happening for the past few days.  The girls were super excited to open the presents, but were very patient as mommy got daddy his coffee.

awed by the whole scene

Katy with her skates and Elena with her bike

opening the kitchen

 Of course we had to try out all the new toys which required a trip to the park.  It was a beautiful day so we all enjoyed our homemade cinnamon rolls, got dressed and headed out.

still working on learning how to steer this thing

Daddy was very proud to go skating with Katy

The day ended with our now traditional family Christmas meal of Johnsonville brats, Harvest Cheddar SunChips or Lays Original Potato Chips, raw vegetables and a special juice.  Over all it was a great time spent with family.