Sooo cute!

Joyce with Pet Shop

David and Jeffrey also enjoyed playing with this.

Jeffrey, David and Sharon

Paul with new Lego set

This set contained a Spongebob theme boathouse, lighthouse, dock, and boat. P3 had it put together in no time.

David with Wendell

David brought his gifts to Wendell for safekeeping. Notice that he is wearing his train outfit from Aunt JJ over his new Thomas the Train PJ's.

Amy with Annabelle

The crochet hat and scarf were made by a friend of Amy's and were just adorable on Annabelle. Annabelle seemed to like them very much!

Blair"s Christmas Tree

Christmas Day was spent at the Blairs. I arrived about 10:30 and helped get the potatoes started for the noontime meal. We had ham, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, corn, green beans and raspberry cheesecake. It was a real feast!
The kids had fun opening gifts and the adults had fun watching them. Marilyn and Wendell came as well as Sharon, Jeff and little Jeffrey.

On the way home...

David fell asleep in the car, still clutching his ticket.

The whistle

David

But then, David opened his special gift from Aunt JJ... his engineer outfit, complete with cap, kerchief, train ticket and pocket watch.

Spacers

For a while David and Annabelle seemed more interested in the spacers Keith put at the edge of his beautiful new hardwood floor.

Presents!

"I got tape!" David said. JJ burst into laughter saying, "I wondered what happened to my roll of tape!"

Amanda

Amanda sings the lead - while Frosty sings backup.

Annabelle with her GM

It is never too soon to learn photography!

Games

Joyce

Joyce with Annabelle

Joyce was particularly glamorous in her red velvet, fur trimmed dress.

Annabelle

Annabelle looks adorable in her red velvet, fur trimmed Christmas dress.

The winner!

John with his prize winning ugly ornament and his prize money!

Ugly ornament tree

For $2 you can enter the ugliest Christmas ornament you can find. The "winner" gets to take home all the money.

Daniel by JJ's tree

JJ's party table

Notice the beautiful Christmas tree cupcakes in the lower left corner?

Christmas tree cupcakes...

Last Saturday the Blair kids [except Annabelle] came over to make cupcakes for the party at JJ's. Joyce had a great idea for making the cakes into trees. Even David joined in the decorating process.

Mint survives!

This picture was taken as the last snow was melting. It had totally covered the mint, but as you can see it did not kill it.

Angels

Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing...

Friends

The girls are sporting their Christmas lights necklaces which they made from Hershey kisses.

Something sweet...

Christmas sleds

Joyce the decorator

Natalie the decorator

Natalie's Stones

Natalie brought her bag of beautiful polished stones to show us.

Making antlers

Rudolph

Uno

Tea time

We are getting the table ready for tea time lunch.

Snazzy Natalie!

Fancy hat overload!

Fancy hats!

Overnighter

Last night the girls arrived, just after supper for a fun filled, girl sleepover. Joyce arrived first and helped get the table ready and the evening craft activity set up. Together we welcomed Natalie for her first time ever sleepover.
We began by getting into paint shirts and painting pop can angel singers. We also made Christmas candy sleds and decorated cookies. The girls decided to watch Polar Express. We snacked on popcorn, pretzel twists and fruit.
Today we had crepes for breakfast stuffed with mandarin oranges and cream. Natalie decided that she would stick with "good old fashioned syrup" on her crepe. We did not waste much time getting back to crafting. We finished up the pop can angels and on to making Rudolph. The girls made a special snowman card to give to a special person.
For lunch today we had a little tea party using the fancy tea cups. We put on fancy hats and attempted to be proper. Natalie wore a beautiful red velvet dress for the occasion!
After the tea party we made some molded fudge candy. Yum!
The girls delighted in each other's company and I delighted in them! They are very dear.
We will have to do this again!

A Snowy Day

This picture was actually taken on Wednesday. The mint in my garden was still green and usable. We got a good bit more snow today and the mint is nearly buried. It was nice to be able to stay home and indoors for most of the day.

Snowflake poem

Snowflakes, Snowflakes
(Tune:Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Snowflakes, snowflakes, dance around,
Snowflakes, snowflakes, touch the ground
Snowflakes, snowflakes, in the air
Snowflakes, snowflakes, everywhere
Snowflakes, snowflakes, dance around
Snowflakes, snowflakes, touch the ground.

Annabelle with lamb

Merry Christmas Joyce!

Joyce has been wanting some warm winter skirts. I planned to make one for her for a Christmas gift, but last week she decided she wanted it for the family Christmas photo, so she came over and worked on it herself. I added the top and the colorful jingle bell necklace and I think she looks stunning!