Holiday roundup

Decorating gingerbread cookies

Victor's gingerbread masterpiece.

 

Anna and her gingerbread victim.

 

Decorating the tree

The kids decorating the tree. Not sure what's up with the hats. We don't keep it that cold in the house.

 

Of course eggnog is a requirement. Hmm, that's not just eggnog, is it?

 

The parental units did participate in the tree-trimming as well.

 

Christmas!

Caity regards the camera with suspicion.

 

We declared Victor to be the gift distributor, since he can read the labels now.

 

Victor had been asking for Mario Kart for the Wii ever since he was introduced to it at Kevin and Mindy's, so we gave him that. He was very happy and wanted to play it at once. But once he saw the space shuttle Lego kit (from Grandma) that was what he wanted to play with first.

 

This track (also from Grandma) was a big hit with everybody, parents included. Except later in the week when Anna woke us in the morning because she had not one, but both of the battery-operated vehicles tangled in her hair, one on each side of her head. She didn't agree that they made cool hair accessories. We make sure her hair is well tied-back before the track comes out now.

 

Victor with the camera

Our camera is sufficiently old and abused that we let Victor run around with it occasionally. These are some of his pictures.

Anna really got into the spirit of giving. She was putting all kinds of things into this box and giving it to people. Just to promptly take it back so she could put something else in it to give away again.

 

Anna loves to be silly, which I think is great. This face, which she frequently breaks out, is kinda freaky though. Hopefully as she gets older she'll tone it down before she gets herself locked up for crazy just from this face.

 

Anna likes to arrange a number of (preferably tiny) objects into a “show”.

 

New Year's

We went to a gathering for New Year's eve and had a blast. We didn't bring a camera, though. The kids ate first and then we put on a movie (Rio) for them, and then the adults ate. A year ago, Victor and Anna would have promptly fallen asleep, given the time (past 8). Pulling some photos from around a year ago:

I think this is Victor waiting for us to read him a book before bed (February 2011).

 

Here is Anna asleep on the living room floor in the afternoon; she didn't want to take a nap (December 2010).

 

And here's Anna asleep on her chair at the kitchen table in the afternoon (December 2010).

It would seem these days are over... both kids were awake until shortly before midnight. Luckily there were no meltdowns, they were both pretty happy the whole time. If they need sleep (or food), any little problem can become a life-destroying disaster.