merry christmas

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas!  

angel

Our red-sneakered, very stage-shy, tinsel garbed angel managed to make it on stage for her first ever sunday school Christmas pageant this weekend.  Though she cried her eyes out during dress rehearsal, she ended up loving the whole experience.  She danced when she wasn't supposed to, and watched the show with her back to the audience when she was supposed to be performing.  Classic.

waiting

If there's one thing you learn as a parent of a preschooler, it's this: delay exciting news.  Over the past couple weeks I've found that A just can't grasp the idea of time enough to understand why it isn't Christmas today.  Talking to her about how many days until we go see family, or celebrate Christmas day, or (worst blunder ever) get to open the secret present I have hidden for her - it's all just asking for frustration as she proceeds to beg "but pleeeease".  Further evidence that time is just a big muddle was hearing her say, as she pushed her dolly in a stroller, "We're going for a walk to Christmas and it's only one hour away!".  My mom-in-law gave me a bright idea to make a countdown for A where she gets to visually see the waiting time grow smaller.  It was also a fun project to work on together (she helped me "write" the title ... clever girl).  Later I rearranged the mittens to make a countdown, rather than a count-up ... but the numbers only matter to me anyway.

Ten days until Christmas!!  Are you ready?

wonder

Look up, little baby.  Take it all in.  Your whirl-around sister in mismatched stripes.  The twinkly tree with all it's lights.  Your own feet, if you can find them.  This is a pretty sweet season and I'm so glad you're here.

dot-to-dot

It's kinda feeling like homestyle preschool around here since Avery's caught on to the fun of connect-the-dot drawings lately.  She's been big into writing fake letters of the alphabet, so I figured it'd be fun to start teaching her how to shape real letters - but really she's just doing dot-to-dot so I won't quite stamp "genius" on her forehead just yet.  That's bound to bite me in the butt sooner or later.

After each letter she cheers for herself - yahooo!  It's been a big week for accomplishing big girl things and she's so excited about it all.

Look at that - C-A-T.  Hello genius!!  I love the extra details she gave this cat.  Eyebrows, an extra eye, an extra mouth.  Love it.

happy faces

... or just plain goofy.

nutcracker

Avery and I have been watching snippets of the Nutcracker ballet together over our quiet afternoons.  She loves watching the ballerinas and it usually inspires her to find her pink fluffy skirt and slippers to twirl around in.  It's been years since I've seen the ballet in person, but I have such sweet memories of going with my Mom to the local theater's production of the Nutcracker and feeling so special.  I ordered a Nutcracker storybook this past month to add to our Christmas book collection and give Avery a little taste of something I love.  She's been pouring over the pictures and all the sweet details, spending long times sitting quietly with her book, and that equals successful book purchase if you ask me.

This is the spread that won me over.  I don't think this book is the best as far as illustration or writing, but I do appreciate that the author chose to include ballet in her re-creation since it's the ballet and the music that make the Nutcracker memorable for me, more than the story itself.  

Happy first of December!  Sweet sugar plum dreams the whole month long.