December

Claire's new smile. 

December was filled with Christmas activities and a lot of fun with family and friends:

Gabby had a Fête de Noël party at her school.  The parents were able to observe the morning routine and then the celebration began, complete with crêpes and madeleines.  Even Claire joined in (who thinks she is already a student anyway).

Our church party was phenomenal!  So much work went into it and the girls had a great time.

Well, except for the Santa part.  For that, both girls turned squirmy and refused to sit on his lap.  (But no nose pickings this time around....)

We went to 5 gift exchange parties this year.  One of them was an ornament exchange.  Jason's family has a Christmas tradition (which we are continuing for our girls) where every year, they add a new ornament with a photo for each child.  When we got married, his parents passed Jason's photo ornaments on to us for our tree.  I love them (mostly for teasing him)!  So for the exchange, I scanned Jason's 1985 photo and stuck it on an ornament without him knowing.  Not only was it a hit at that party, but it showed up at the next white elephant exchange!

 We bought a real Christmas tree and decorated it.  I thought we were going to have to put a gate around the tree for Claire, but luckily, she pretty much ignored the ornaments.  What the girls did not ignore were the tree lights.  They would not last half a second in the room without shouting at me to turn the lights back on.

The girls frequently dressed up as Mary and a shepherd with anything they could find. 

We all enjoyed extra time with friends and family.

We went to Snowflake Lane, where the girls had a great time watching the costumed drummers and watching the "snow" fall.  But Gabby's favorite part was hanging out at her friend, Frida's, place afterward.

I had a goal this year to bake for the many friends and neighbors who are so good to us all year round.  I found some star Christmas tree cookie-cutters at Crate and Barrel and started baking.  A whole day later, this is how far I got.  1 tree completed.  So much for my ambitions.  Maybe next year, friends....

Gabby learned "Jingle Bells," or rather, "Tinkerbells" this year.  This is the quick 10-second video that uploaded easily (before she successfully learned all the lyrics).