Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I'm just now getting around to sorting through our holiday photos. Here's one I took just before Christmas...me, Savy and Scarlett riding the train at Carriage Crossing after their Santa pics.



Christmas morning Savannah and Scarlett woke up to lots of goodies. I just love the look on Savannah's face when she first sees all her presents.



There was a very nice surprise from Santa...he couldn't get the whole playset inside, so he left the sliding board and a photo of the playset. This is a gift to be shared with our next door neighbors Abby and Zoe. They are going to have so much fun with this!



Scarlett was utterly amazed at the presents under the tree.











Scarlett loved her gift from Savannah. Savy picked it out all by herself....what a good big sis.


The stockings were stuffed.




Looks like Santa enjoyed the milk and cookies the girls left for him.



They loved the pretend grocery store I made for them. Santa must have known they would need a cash register to go with it.



Next it was off to Mimi's house for lunch and more presents.






Scarlett and Pappi being silly.






Savannah somehow managed to get ahold of Santa's list and started editing it for him. Pappi, Daddy, and I wound up on the naughty list. Mimi, Nanny, and Lee Otis made it on the nice list.



After Mimi's house, we went to Glen Allan to visit Jon's family. We had Christmas supper at Lesa's house. I didn't get too many pics there...mainly because we were all pretty exhausted by that time and the girls were sick of pictures. Here's one of the few...the girls eating dinner with Savy's new fijit friend which she declared the "best present ever."



The girls were so glad to see Granny Ruth, Aunt Lesa, Uncle Neil, Rose, Lindsey, and John Robert. Savannah was determined to shoot her new bb gun while we were there, but it rained the whole time. Finally, the sun came out on the morning we were leaving, and she got to shoot a few times.



We stopped in Greenville on the way home to visit with our friends John and Jennifer and their 2 kiddos Addie and Ethan. Granny Ruth came home with us to spend some time with the girls. We have really enjoyed having her here!

Another Finished Project

This one was a Christmas gift for the girls, and I finally got around to finishing it today. If you don't count the time it took to paint it, I only spent about 4 hours building this. Last time I posted my progress, it looked like this





Ta-da!



Plans are from Ana White's Grace's town collection. I made it a little taller than the plans called for...Savannah is pretty tall for her age. Building this actually took less time than painting it...I really hate painting. I spray painted some pre-cut wooden letters and glued them on to make the "market" sign.

View from the back



The only thing I would change if I ever build another one of these is I'd make the bin dividers straight instead of curved. I had a hard time cutting the curves evenly with the jig saw, and it was very difficult to sand them.



This can also double as a puppet theater, or Savannah will probably use it to play "TV"...one of her favorite pretend games. I may have to add some curtains to it.

Think they'll like it?

Our First Gingerbread House

Savannah has been asking to make a gingerbread house, so I finally picked up the supplies. She couldn't wait to get startedt this morning.



I did most of the icing, and the girls put the candy on.




Savy's very excited here because I told her she could decorate the last gingerbread man however she wants.



And she gets right to it. Scarlett can't keep her fingers out of the icing on the house.



Look what's happening in the background while I'm busy taking photos of the finished house....Savannah is eating frosting directly from the bag, and Scarlett is actually trying to take a bite of the house.



Busted!

I had to move the house to the counter for its own protection.



Again with the frosting.



Wow




Crick, our elf, came back at the first of the month when we decorated our tree.



He goes back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa if the girls have been naughty or nice, then he shows up in a different spot the next morning. Jon overheard Savy asking Crick if he'd bring a picture of Rudolph back with him so she'd know Rudolph is real. It took a while to find a realistic image, but we printed this out on photo paper for Crick to "bring back."



Savannah was pretty impressed. Yesterday I heard her asking Crick for a photo of Rudolph during the daytime so she could see him better. So Crick was holding this photo when she found him this morning.



Being an elf is hard work!

The Wedding Dress Project

Has another year passed already? It seems like just a little while ago that I was doing the photos for this project LAST year!

For anyone who doesn't know what the wedding dress project is, every year around Christmas I take photos of the girls in my wedding dress. One day I'll make a collection of photos from each year so we can see the girls growing into the dress.

Here are this year's photos. I think next year I'll try to start a little earlier (while it's still warm) so we can take the photos outside for better lighting...didn't I say that same thing last year?

Savannah at 6 years old








scarlett 2 years old






I regret that I didn't think of doing this until Savannah was 3 years old...I really wish I had started when she was a newborn. Here are some of my favorites from past years.

Savannah at 3 years


4 years



5 years







Scarlett at 4 months old




and 16 months





They like playing dress-up, but they get tired of me taking pics pretty quick....then it's complain, whine, and complain some more until we're done. Hopefully one day they'll be glad I made them do it.