Same Time Next Year...

Every year I take Emily's photo while she sits in the same chair in front of the tree. I can't for the life of me find last years photo but 2007, 2008. and 2010 will suffice for now. And yes, this series of yearly photos has it's own scrap book!

Emily and Grammy

Grammy came to see us on Christmas Day and we had a great day. She brought Emily a Mary Poppins umbrella and Emily took her for a spin on the ice rink!

Felicity

The only thing Emily asked for, for Christmas, was Felicity an American Girl Doll. Of course Santa had to bring it, and her riding outfit, and a horse too! Now, Emily wants these dolls but then does not play with them a lot, we will see what happens!

Applying some "lipstick"

It's a Pillow, It's a Pet

Probably one of Emily's favorite presents came from Doug, a Pillow Pet!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with 13 of Doug's kids, making gingerbread houses, eating pizza, and opening presents. It was a great afternoon with a great group of kids. We had 3 new kids this year and one from last year was not invited back due to her behavior in the past few months (Doug does not put up with bad behavior, even at Christmas). It is really fun to watch them open gifts and get so excited over a Michael Jackson book, or even new socks.

Emily loves frosting!

Betty, one of my favorites, so excited over a $10 gift card!

Emily and Gifty, a new addition this year. She is 8 years old and loved Emily's dress up clothes and Emily was happy to have someone to dress up with!

Cookies for Santa

I thought it might be nice to make cookies for Santa, from scratch, with Emily. I knew I would not like doing it but I did it anyway....Bah hum bug. Anyway, I ran into a few snags right away... I did not know how to attach the beaters to the mixer and 2/3 of a cup of butter was not a measurement labeled on the stick of butter. Thank heavens Rick came home to help with the mixer and the internet helped with the measurements. We then make the batter, put it in the refrigerator, and 30-40 minutes later it was still sticky. We added a ton more flour and then were able to roll and cut the cookies. Emily actually knew to "wiggle the cookie cutter" before she lifted it from the dough (thank you Nancy).

Emily did a great job decorating and I was just thankful I don't have to do it again until next year!

And yes, this is the first time I have baked from scratch!

Johnny

This year we added a new tradition to the holiday season. It is known as The Elf on the Shelf. As you can see he is a cute elf and he comes with a children's book. The book describes the reason for him coming to your house and the rules while he is there. Basically, he is Santa's helper and he watches Emily by day, and at night he goes to report to Santa on her behavior that day. Each morning Emily has to find him in a new spot in the house. There are rules which Emily must follow....She has to name him (hence Johnny), She may not touch him (or his magic will disappear), she may talk to him but he can't talk back (Santa's rule)..... Emily , being the rule follower she is, had no problem with this. I have to say it has been a lot of fun having him around and I am pleased to report that he only gave Santa good reports on Emily as she is a very good girl.

The best holiday tradition....decorating the tree

The Next Michelle Kwan?

Once you are over the shock that we have an ice skating rink in our back yard you will enjoy these videos! Rick has been working on the rink night and day for several weeks now. He has been most recently spotted at 1am putting a layer of water on the rink. It was almost ready to use last weekend but the rains came, with temps in the 50's, and ruined it all. Yesterday was Emily's first day on the rink and she loved it. She really wants to skate without the walker (which Rick also built) but she realized it hurts to fall.

Stay tuned!

A New Season

We went skiing yesterday at Pats Peak. I was worried Emily would not remember how to stop or turn but she was great right fom the start! After we got to the bottom of each run she would say "After we ride the chairlift I want to ski more." Music to my ears!

More Mary Poppins

Emily dresses as Mary Poppins every chance she gets.

1. A dress

2. an apron

3. A fancy coat

4. scarf

5. umbrella

OBSESSED!

OMG!

After many hours logged in the pool I see a real swimmer emerging. Emily's teacher started her with the freestyle stroke last week and she worked on it in free swim this week. I realize she looks a little out of control while doing this but remember.......Rome was not built in a day

Gymnastics at the Y

Emily has not done a gymnastics class since she was 2 when we did it together. I thought we would try again and she enjoyed it very much.
scary

Santa's Workshop

On Saturday night we went to a real Santa's Workshop! I was an incredible place. Santa works all year making wooden toys to give to each child who visits the workshop. The children get to play with samples of each toy....cars, airplanes, trains, dolls, etc...and then visits an elf to pick their toy. There is also a workshop where the children can actually work on a toy. The workshop is open 4 nights for 2 hours each night...we waited 1 hour to get in but it was worth it

waiting to enter....
Mrs. Claus

"I am four years old."

Santa was in his casual, working outfit

a reindeer on the face

Picking out the wooden doll

Midnight Merriment

We met a new friend Ben at the Twinkies 3rd birthday party last November, and Ben took an immediate liking to Emily. We then saw him a week later, quite by accident, at Midnight Merriment in Concord. We saw him again at the Twinkies 4th birthday a few weeks ago. Ben was still smitten with Emily (and brought a picture he drew just for her) so we made a plan to meet again in Concord a week after the party. We had a good time walking the streets on Emily's "first date."

He is a bit shorter than Emily, but he is older

Chatting with Santa

Future Star?

Rick was in England last week and had a meeting at the Chelsea Football Club Stadium. One of the guys he works with (and one of my favorites) bought Emily this football uniform! Number 11 is Chelsea's best player, Didier Drogba. Emily loves to get dressed up and wear it around the house and she even tried to play outside, but it was too cold!