A Very Merry Christmas and More...

We had a fabulous, over-the-top Christmas this year. Unfortuantely, this is the only picture we have of it: We used our video camera a recorded the present opening, but apparently we forgot to then document the goods with pictures. Oh well. We had a wonderful morning. Julie woke up at 5:30 a.m. (I swear she knew it was Christmas and she wanted to open presents!) all bright and cheery. So Arek and I decided not to fight with her and we all openened our presents and were done by 6 a.m. Arek and I were very spoiled this year, both by each other and our parents. The main presents were a cordless drill and driver set for Arek and a sewing machine for me (my first ever). Julie LOVED unwrapping everything (she even helped Arek and me unwrap a lot of our presents) and she loved all the new toys she received. The other really nice thing about Christmas was being able to talk with my brother Ben, who's on his mission in Russia. It was good to hear his voice. He sounds so happy and really enjoying the work there.

Spaghetti Face... I think this is Julie's first every time having spaghetti, although I may be wrong. Either way I had to take a picture I can't believe how long Julie's hair is getting. You may not be able to see it well, but I can now do three connected-piggy-tails. It also curls a bit around her neck... I love it!Her hairdo from the front:Thursday night Jenny and Todd came up to celebrate their 3rd anniversary by going to the Firehouse Restaurant up in Logan. We very happily volunteered to watch Lilly, since she is Julie's best friend in the world. Here are some snapshots of them playing together. Julie loves to give hugs now, especially to Lilly. Sometimes she has to do it (like after she plays too rough with Lilly) but often she just walks up next to Lilly and lovingly wraps her arms around her and pats her back. It is so cute to see.They loved the miniature keyboard that we have in our hallway... conveniently placed low so Julie can play on the keysLilly decided she wanted to sit down, but Julie was SURE she wanted to get up. She tried several times to pull Lilly to her feet... But I think Lilly was more determined to sit

Here are the girls with their matching miature camelbak waterbottles.

Christmas Stocking

I have finally finished Julie's Christmas stocking! So no longer does her stocking look like this:
It now looks like this:
I must admit I was very happy with how it turned out. The back is red velveteen, like the little hanger you can see in the picture. Next year I'll see about making new stockings for Arek and me so we have a matching set

Clementines

This week Julie tried clementines for the first time. She loves them... eats one or two a day (or more sometimes). The other day I gave her one (unpeeled) to play with while I did something at the kitchen table. A few minutes later this is what I discovered in the hall. If you can't tell, she split the still-unpeeled orange in two and was sucking the juice/eating the insides. Here is the final result of the sad, destroyed clementine. Julie sure did love it, though!

St. Nikolas Day

I'm not sure what words to write today... my mind is a blank. So in lieu of words, here are some photos of our Christmas decorations around the house. Oh, and Happy St. Nikolas Day to those of you who celebrate it! Julie loved seeing her new ornament in her shoe this morning. Next year she might get goodies, too, but right now the ornament took up all the room! Arek said we had to put this in the window. It's only about 5 or 6 inches tall, but we put it up on a block which makes it visible from the sidewalk below. It makes me laugh every time I see it. Our stockings. Yes, I know Julie's is white trash-looking... I am currently making her one. It should be ready by Christmas, so I will share pictures when it is complete. I am really excited for it.Our German nativity my dad got for us... I love it... the baby Jesus even comes out of manger, which is why it's up highOur Christmas tree... note the lack of ornaments on the bottom half... yes, Julie was loving them so we put them all up on top. Maybe next year we can decorate the whole tree. Oh and also, please notice the chain of popcorn and cranberries. I've always wanted to make one, but this is the first year it's actually happened. I like it a lot

Rag CurlsAnd the other day I put Julie's hair in rag curls to see what it would do. As you can see... the top didn't do much, so I just put it back into its typical pigtails, but the sides poofed out pretty cutely, I think. :)