Sprinkle on the Fun

Decorating sugar cookies is a time-honored Christmas tradition that I am happy to keep up with my kids (on a much smaller scale). It wouldn't be the holidays without cookies, so I spent a quiet Sunday afternoon (a Christmas miracle, truly!) baking 4 batches: snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, peanut butter and sugar cut-outs. This past week, I iced the sugar cookies and let the kids go to work with various sprinkles and colored sugars. This was Degen's first year decorating, and he loved it! 

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Here is our photo of Santa 2010! Every year, we go to Easton to see Santa with some of our playgroup friends. We arrived at the mall about 15 minutes before they were opened, and, of course, found a line about 10-deep waiting for Santa to arrive. We waited in line about 35 minutes and had our photo in-hand just in time to make the storytime at the nearby Barnes & Noble.

The Santa at Easton is WONDERFUL! (And I will only go to Easton to see Santa because they are the only mall to offer a $5 photo, AND they will let you take your own photos even without a purchase. The rest charge $17 for the same photo and refuse to let you take your own pictures unless you make a purchase- humbugs!)

Kyrie was very excited to see Santa this year and ran right up and climbed on his lap. I wasn't sure how Degen would react to Santa, especially since we were able to get a photo with both kids last year. Alas, my boy is a Momma's boy entirely and absolutely refused to loosen the kung-fu grip he had on my shoulders. I refuse to force Santa to hold my screaming kid, so I just held Degen while I snapped photos of Kyrie. I am happy to have such a sweet photo of Kyrie with Santa, and I'm hopeful that next year Degen will be more willing to sit with him!

Toe Tappin' to Christmas

Kyrie started a tap-ballet combo class this fall, and this Saturday (12/18) they had a "Nutcracker" dance recital. Kyrie's class showed off their tap dancing to the "Nutcracker March." We were terribly sad that we arrived late, so late that Kyrie missed half of her (already short) performance. What she was able to dance, she did a good job: shuffle, heel-steps, jumps & salutes. She was disappointed that she missed so much of the performance and wanted to dance more, but seemed to handle the disappointment well. 

She has been quite excited about "The Nutcracker" this year. The Barbie version has made it into our rotation of Christmas movies, which has drawn her into the story even more. This evening's advent calendar had a surprise from Santa Claus: 2 tickets to see BalletMet perform the holiday ballet on Sunday afternoon! She is thrilled that she will be able to see the "real" Nutcracker!

Deck the Halls

As we move into the week of Christmas, we have (finally) started our Christmas unit. We have a lot of great books to read and fun activities. It is a week that is light on 'work' because I know that we have a lot of fun extras like going to see Santa and our playgroup holiday party. Every evening, we have opened a box on our advent calendar. It is amazing how quickly 25 days can pass!

Here are some photos of  Kyrie working on a candy cane cutting activity. I am really proud of how much progress Kyrie has made with her scissor skills in the past year. Though she can get sloppy when she's distracted or rushing, she can also be very accurate when she takes her time. I have included some pictures that show our "school" space.



That's a Wrap!

One evening, the kids were getting fussy right before dinner, which is the way my kids get every evening before dinner. I was happy to have a fun, holiday project for them to work on to fill up the time while we waited for Darren to get home. I pulled out the markers and laid out wrapping paper for the kids to color. They had a great time, especially Kyrie who took the time to color in each and every thing on the expanse of paper. And the wrapping paper turned out so cute!



Frosty the Snowmallow

As part of our thematic unit on winter, we made marshmallow snowmen for snack! This was a quick idea, so I had to use the ingredients we had on hand, hence the yellow frosting that held our snowmen together. Kyrie just loved this crafty snack, yellow frosting and all!

Kyrie couldn't wait for the picture and popped Frosty's Hershey's Kiss hat right into her mouth!

She Made It!

Making the bed is on Kyrie's list of responsibilities, but she has difficulty completing the task on a daily basis. However, last week there was about 30 minutes in which all she wanted to do was "help Momma because she has ALL the work to do." She put her folded clothes in her drawers while I changed the sheets. Then she announced that she wanted to finish making her bed. I went off to change the other sheets until she gleefully called for me to come see what she had done. Not only had she finished stacking her pillows, but she had also draped all her blankets and placed almost all her stuffed animals around the bed. She excitedly announced that she called it "The Castle of Polonia." She was very proud of her hard work!