Christmas (In July : ))

Our Christmastime was full of fun craziness as it always is.  Here are some pics to share...

Family time together on Thanksgiving weekend kicks off the season...

Taking Mary to The Polar Express and The Nutcracker

Annabel and I attending one of her baby showers

 Zoo Lights with Stephanie, Sigmund, and Mike

Making treats for Mary's Preschool Christmas Party

The kids got to wear their pajamas to school!  Isn't her class cute?

A cute seasonal outfit....The kids also had matching Christmas outfits - not sure if I took a picture.   Anyway, they were super cute white and black fairisle sweater and dress.

"Gingerbread" house decorating

Christmas Morning

 And I just have to tell you about Mary's main Christmas present this year.  I don't have a picture to post yet.  I'll try to do that.  She was still sleeping in a toddler bed and she was getting too big for it.  So I thought we could get her a new bed and fix up her room as her present and kill two birds with one stone.   Ellen, Jeff's Mom, also helped us.  Besides buying a chandelier (Mary's belated birthday gift), she took the curtains that used to hang in Mary's nursery and detached the old matching fabric and used a sheet from the new bedding and put it on the curtains.  (She also made matching dolls blankets and pillows.  Seriously awesome!)  We also got a new mirror for above her chest of drawers.
Anyway, so Christmas Eve, we had her sleep in our bed (which we never do) and put up the mirror, chandelier, etc., put the bed together (thank you for helping Charles) while she was sleeping.  It went pretty fast I thought.
In the middle of the night though - close to morning - she got up and wanted to go back to her bed!  I was nervous about that because she was tired and I didn't know if she'd like her NEW bed.  Of course I didn't want her to have a bad experience, but ultimately Jeff and I decided to let her go back to her (new) bedroom.  We walked in behind her as she walked into her room.  As soon as she saw it, she lit up and turned around, and said something like, "See Dad, I knew I liked this kind of bed".
So she loved it, and climbed into her new bed and we didn't see her again until morning.  It was fun!

I think I'm finally done recording 2013!  On to 2014.  : )