This Christmas: Greatest Hits

Just a few of my favorite photos over the last few days:

This photo has become one of my favorites, and needs a bit of back story.

A good friend of ours went into labor Christmas Eve morning, so dh went to pick up her 4 year old to hang out with us. She was supposed to spend the night, but was having a real hard time with it. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning (about 1 am), I stepped into A.'s room to see if they were sleeping. They weren't. Her friend, A.B., had her head in A.'s lap as they watched some movie together. A. was petting A.B.'s head, trying to comfort her. It worked. For a little while.

It was the sweetest thing I think I've caught on camera in a very long time. It is definately one of those moments that makes me so proud of A., and reminds me of what a truly wonderful and empathic child she is and always has been.

Oh, Christmas tree!

A. and dh duking it out to see who gets to play Beautiful Katamari first.

A. enjoying her l-max.

This game? Harder than it looks, people!

But not for A. She is the fishing pro of this house.

S. actually smiled for the camera! This is typically unheard of behavior for her.

Driving Ms. S.

She's gonna be a rock star someday!

Happy birthday to- uh, you?

This Christmas

First things first:

For very many reasons, it has been pretty hectic leading into Christmas this year. I dreaded it, and couldn't wait for it to be over. But now that it is, it wasn't so bad. Except for the botched batch of fudge. And sweet potato casserole. But that's okay, cuz it was just us for Christmas dinner. So no one missed out on any of that stuff except for me. I love fudge. But it's probably for the best. I'm starting to pack on a few lbs. We do, however, have an apple pie sitting patiently on the counter. I suppose I'll have to break into that tonight. It will at least make me feel less guilty about eating it. Cuz there's fruit in it, you know? So, it must be better than fudge.

Today has been a pretty relaxing day, for the most part. It helps that everything is closed anyways, so there isn't anywhere to go if we wanted to. But that's fine by me. Finished one book and started another last night, finished one knitting project last night and made a lot of progress on my second knitting project today. So, despite us being home bound (or maybe as a result?), I've been pretty productive.

So, you may be wondering what Santa brought everyone this year?

Here, I'll show you!

I made this at a local pottery store called Paint Yourself Silly, where you can buy ceramics and paint them. I saw this, thought it would be perfect for dh, and wha-la. I even turned it into a candy dish! Not exactly from Santa, but I like to think I come in a close second.

The chocolates are already gone though. This time, not my fault!

A. and her coveted Leapster L-Max (they used to own a regular Leapster and seriously guys, one of the best toy investments we've ever made).

S. has her very own L-Max, too.

To dh from A., also from Paint Yourself Silly.

To dh from S., again, Paint Yourself Silly.

And last but not least, a child-friendly X-box360 game for the girls-Beautiful Katamari:

The goal? You start off with a little glob (your "katamari"- God love the Japanese), and you roll over things, which stick to your glob. You have to make it as big as you can in the allotted time frame. Here's a screen shot:

I have to admit, I'm not sure if the game is more for A. & S., than dh. But it doesn't matter. They sit together, take turns playing, he helps her and S. and everyone has a good time trying to roll over people and boats (really. You can stick people to your glob- katamari-. It's cool, too, because their arms and legs flail once they get all rolled up and I'm like, "sorry bitches. But a glob's gotta do what a glob's gotta do!") It's great!

There were many more gifts, of course. From Santa and us and everyone in between, but these were the biggest hits.

Plus, I took over 200 pictures and I don't want to inundate you with all the great photos I shot.
*say cheese*

Although I probably will post a few others tomorrow. But just a few.

I hope you're holidays are filled with lots of wonderful memories!