Our Christmas

We had a wonderful, low-key Christmas this year! We spent Christmas Eve and Day at our house with my mom and grandmother in town. It was a fun, quiet ... who am I kidding, nothing is quiet around here ... Christmas. Perfect. Then we loaded up for a long road trip and went to Dallas to see Danny's family. Here are a boatload of pictures from our Christmas.






Hamming it up on Christmas Eve.






Begging for a piece of my grandmother's peanut butter fudge. It is a holiday tradition and some of the best stuff I have ever put in my mouth. Must learn how to make it.




Lia Kate and me at the Christmas Eve service.




Reading a Christmas book before bed.






The kids made Santa a plate and scattered "reindeer food" in the yard.




Christmas morning.





And, then, another Christmas in Dallas.

The kids both got scooters and perfected riding them in Dallas. I was surprised how fast they picked it up. They can really zoom and then stop on a dime.


Riding the Grapevine train.




Lia Kate's maiden voyage to the American Girl Store. She came out with Bitty Twins ... one for her and one for Britton.




And, seriously, Britton's doll looks just like him.


Such a fun, low-key Christmas! Looking forward to 2012 and all that it will bring!

She Likes Tea

My little girl loves drinking hot tea from our Chinese restaurant. It is pretty cute to see such a little thing sipping on hot tea.

Happy Two Years Together!

From sullen and somber ...


... to all out sass...


The last two years have been both lovely and love-filled.

Happy Gotcha Day, Lia Kate!

We plan to celebrate tonight by going out to our favorite Chinese food restaurant. The Sass has requested "hot tea in a little cup."

Last Night Ever

My most recent Facebook status:

Two years ago tonight, our daughter spent her last night ever in an orphanage. Coincidentally, it was also her last night ever in any sort of yellow, orange & navy clothing ensemble. But I digress...

Dancing Queen

My little girl started taking dance classes this Fall. She loves it. It is actually her first thing to do apart from her brother and I wasn't sure how she was going to handle doing something completely on her own with no one that she knows. She was very tentative at first, but she has really come out of her shell. The dance rooms have a wall of mirrored windows, so the parents get to sit and watch. It is a sweet time to see her do something that she enjoys all on her own.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our house. It all started early this month when we went to get our Christmas tree...




We found the one within a few minutes of being there.


The kiddos were pretty excited about picking out their "Chrih-ma tree".





Once we got the lights on the tree, I followed our tradition by putting two presents under the tree.


In them were their new...

Christmas jammies.


I love seeing kiddos in Christmas pajamas!




We decorated the tree.


We posed in our new jammies.


We had meltdowns.


We drank eggnog and had cookies.





And by the end of the night, after we evened out the low-hanging ornaments, we had this...


The stockings are hung.


And the kids' little trees are lit beside their beds.


We are also working through our advent calendar. I printed out these free kid-oriented advent verses.


And the kids are counting down the days (or at least the days we remember to do this) with these guys that I found in the dollar spot at Target.


We also have our favorite Christmas books out and are enjoying old faves and new finds...


And our Advent candles are lit.


Loving this December and looking forward to Christmas celebrations with our families!