The best Christmas ever

Daddy got a Fathead for his office! Look up "awesome" in the dictionary - you'll see this picture.

Christmas Morning

Mom and dad gave each other a fridge for Christmas (not by choice - the old one finally died) so our stockings were empty this year. The kids, on the other had, made out like bandits again.

Emily was most excited about her keyboard and certificate for piano lessons. Her first lesson is Jan. 5 - very exciting! She has been asking about piano lessons for a while, and now she can practice at home.

You can never go wrong with a Carolina sweatshirt.

Both girls received new American Girl dolls this year. The expressions on their faces tell the entire story. Our next door neighbor made a couple of outfits for their American Girls as well.

Another dress up dress for Adelle. The hit of the party!



Cutler was moderately amused by the whole process.
But really, not so much......

Christmas Pix

We're on the fence out here with the weather. On one hand, I envy my Portland friends because I don't remember ever having a white Christmas. Ever.
On the other hand, we spend Christmas Eve prepping for a big dinner with friends with the windows open. The kids rode bikes, played hoops, and ran around the neighborhood pretty much all day.

We smoked another turkey last night and had a great feast with our friends. After dinner, the girls put on a fashion show for the adults (Emily didn't participate in the modeling - she was the coordinator).


We finally hustled the kid off to bed so Mom and Dad could get to work cleaning up the house. We were up until almost 2, but didn't catch a glimpse of Santa. Maybe he worked extra late this year? In any case, we know he came because the cookies and milk were gone this morning. The girls made a special batch of cookies this week and I'm fairly certain Santa enjoyed them.

The Christmas Train

It's that time of year again - time to break out the Christmas train! It seems to get a little bigger each year (don't know how that happens) and continues to take up more and more space. It's only for a week or two each year, so we try to have fun with it. The kids like to play as much as possible, but only when they can get me off the thing! What can I say? Every little boy wants his very own train.

Daddy and the Cut-Man

We love our Broncos!

And Adelle REALLY loves her Broncos jersey. She insisted that I put mine on last Sunday so we could match. Too bad it didn't inspire the Broncos....

Cutler

The Christmas tree

Hey, look what we got! Oh, it's just the same old Junior.
Daddy putting Mr. Claus on top of the tree.

And Ms. Thang posing in between putting ornaments on the tree.

Emily's 9th Birthday Party

So Emily decided to have a spa night for her birthday. Molly took the girls down to a spa for a pedicure and a little girl time. They had an absolute blast...

After the pedicure, they came home for pizza, pop, and birthday cake. Here is the crew:
And the results of their spa time:

Christmas Parade

Emily was in a small community parade this afternoon in South Durham. It was a standard issue parade - old cars, fire trucks, bands, etc. The air was a bit chilly but we survived.


Molly and Cutler staying warm while we waited for the parade to start....

Adelle being Adelle...
And we live in Durham, so of course there's this.........

Misc. kid pix

This is Adelle's "Boone" necklace. We took the girls to a bead shop in Boone when we visited over the 4th of July weekend. They picked out the beads on their own and made necklaces. It amazing how much enjoyment they get out of $10 worth of beads and string. 5 months later and she still talks about our trip to Boone!


Adelle likes helping mommy with Cutler's bath. She decided to strip and jump in the other night. Yeah, Cutler isn't amused. He actually likes the warm water once you get him out of the cold air.

Here are a couple of random tree climbing pics. It's starting to cool off a bit, but the kids still spend most of the day outside with their friends. We're in the low 50's today, but we'll be back near 60 again by mid-week. Anything under 50 and we stay inside!