Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with peace, love and laughter!

Christmas in Pictures

Our Christmas Eve day tradition - making sugar cookies with friends

Alex having a great time

Rachael's snowman cookie

The kids exchanged gifts.  They both thought it was great to get to open a present before Christmas.  They are so happy, they are even mugging for the camera.  Again.

Our usual Christmas eve feast

Sprinkling reindeer chow (thanks Sister Ellis!)

Cookies, hot chocolate and a Diet Coke for Santa

 The much-coveted Princess Celestia pony (she was so thrilled)

We went to church.  I though we should document it.

Rachael got a big cardboard playhouse from Santa that she can color herself.

And we all got skates for Christmas! Rachael got regular roller skates, and Ryan and I each got roller blades.  We all tried our skates on and skated around the house in the afternoon.  Christmas isn't Christmas without some rule breaking, right?

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Christmas Past (cookie version)

2005: with a cookie. Santa may or may not have gotten cookies this year.

2006: if we left cookies for Santa, I didn't take a picture.

2007: Christmas Eve in Idaho with Braden and Ryan.  We made cookies for Santa that day, but I didn't take a picture.

2008: Cookies and Diet Coke for Santa!

2009: Cookies and Diet Coke for Santa!

2010: Cookies and Diet Coke for Santa!

2011: Cookies, hot chocolate and Diet Coke!

A Letter from Santa

The city of Richmond sponsors a "letter from Santa" program here in the city.  Rachael was so excited to get hers in the mail!

Last year's letter - equally a success!

The Nutcracker

I was so excited to find out there was a performance of the Nutcracker at the new EKU Center for the Arts, and it was even while Ryan was in China.  (Because he wouldn't really want to go anyway).  So we invited our friends Louan and Emily, and dressed up fancy for the ballet.

This is actually her Christmas dress, but I thought it would be fun to have a chance to wear it early.  (She picked this dress herself - you can't tell from the picture but it is sparkly and has a large jewel on the left side.  She was in love when she first saw it back in October).
 

Louan took this picture for us at the auditorium.  We had so much fun! We are thinking of making it an annual tradition.

Richmond Christmas Parade

We have been to the Christmas parade in Richmond for the past few years, but this year Rachael got the opportunity to march with her dance group.  Her baton instructor, Ms. Jenni, even taught them a short routine for the parade.  The routine was 8 beats with the baton in front, 8 beats with the baton overheat, 8 beats with the baton behind the head, and then 8 beats twirling.  (Click here for the video.) After awhile, she figured out how to twirl with one hand and wave with the other, which was really cute! (Click here for the video!) For reasons that are still a mystery to me, she was really nervous about marching in the parade, so I walked with the group.  We marched right behind Madison Central's marching band which was fun but loud! After we got to the end of the parade route, we met up with Ryan and found a spot to watch the rest of the parade.

The whole group

 Twirling and waving

Southern Lights

One of our favorite family traditions since moving to Kentucky! 

Ryan's favorite sculptures: the Star Wars lights!

The highlight for Rachael: Santa Claus! We love to see Santa at Southern Lights because there is rarely a line and we get right in.  This year Santa asked for cookies and hot chocolate... silly Santa, did you already forget you like a Diet Coke when you stop at our house?  Don't worry, Rachael is planning to leave both. (PS, when we got home, she said she talked to the "fake Santa." Because she knows the real Santa is busy making toys and getting ready for Christmas.)

This year Santa was located in the Horse Museum, with all the sleighs.

Rachael's other favorite: the train! She was very polite and a good listener, so the train conductor rewarded her with a small train whistle of her own.  Next year I'm going to teach her to throw rotten fruit at the driver. He has earned it, I think.

Something new this year - hobby trains! They had every size you could imagine.

And the cherry on top - the petting zoo!