Isn't She Lovely

On rare occasion, Campbell will let me fix her hair and pick out her clothes. Today was one of those days. Isn't she lovely?

Looks like Christmas

This year we placed the Christmas tree in the upstairs front room and moved Colgin's tree down to the family room. The girls do a nice job of helping decorate the house for Christmas. I think it looks great!


Oh Christmas Tree


Here comes Santa Claus


Table decorations


Colgin's tree


Mantle pieces


Kids tree

Baking Cookies

Chad went to KC to shop this weekend, so the girls and I enjoyed some time in the kitchen baking cookies. I'm always a little ambitious when I make the list of cookies to bake. This year's list included: puppy chow, scotcheroos, fudge, chocolate chip cookies, and sugar cutout cookies. The girls helped as much as I expected. The end results were delicious.


Cutting out cookies.


Decorating candy cane cookies.


Campbell's cookies.


Cooper's cookies.

Celebrating Early

Campbell turns 5 in less than a month. To celebrate we all got dressed up, went to eat dinner at Harry's, and then went to see the Celtic Tenors sing Christmas. When Cooper turned five, we did something similar. Dinner at Harry's and the play Peter Pan. It was a great night. Tonight was the same. Turning 5 is a big deal and we wanted to make sure Campbell's big birthday was one to remember.


The birthday girl all dressed up.


Cooper and Campbell at dinner.


Mommy and her girls.


Daddy and the girls.

Trimming the Tree

We all love Christmas. The spell of pine, 24/7 Christmas Carols on the radio, cold snowy weather, baking cookies, watching Rudolph and Frosty, and enjoying time with family and friends. Tonight was the night to trim the tree.


Mom puts the lights and ribbon on.


Dad decorates the top branches.


The girls cover the rest of the tree with ornaments.

Hello Alexander

When we returned home from Thanksgiving, we were greeted by our Elf on a Shelf Alexander. It is the holiday season and Alexander works for Santa Claus. Each night he flys back to the North Pole to let Santa know if Cooper and Campbell have been naughty or nice. The girls were excited to see that Alexander had brought them each a gift. This year it was a Rubik's Cube.

Thanksgiving

I was so excited when my dad told me in August that he and Marie bought a new house. Once the final details where set we agreed that Thanksgiving would be celebrated at the new house this year.

As the day grew closer, the guest list increased. With our family, my sister's family, and 3 siblings of my dad's; it was going to be a full house. How exciting!

We had a great time. There was so much food and drink. We played cards, watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and reminisced about years gone by. The girls reviewed all the sales ads and did some Black Friday shopping. The big hit was watching The Polar Express on dad's new 3D tv and playing games on Marie's new touchscreen computer. We made sure to complete the weekend by decorating the Christmas tree, hanging lights outside on the house, and walking the neighborhood to see other decorated houses. It was a great holiday weekend.


The girls did a great job decorating Papa & Gma's Christmas tree.


The outside view of the lights that Pat & Chad put on the new house.


Dad and Marie in front of the new house.


Family Photo