Julia dressed up for breakfast this morning.

She also insisted on using a knife to cut up her eggs. Her brother was, and she must do whatever he does. I guess today I'll try and find a tot sized butter knife. Do they make those?

Merry Christmas!

Antonio was given the gift of a little bit of soul




Julia was given the gift of dexterity

I tried to get a nice picture of the kids this evening in their Christmas jammies, but this is the best I could get....




Antonio sat down and wrote his own letter to Santa this year.


He went with the basics,

" Dear Santa
I hope you
give us
good prasat
From Antonio"

I think Santa can accommodate that.

This morning we woke up to snow.
Which was a big surprise, or maybe it wouldn't have been if we'd watched the news.
Who knows....

We got right out into the snow, since it was starting to slush up, so the kids could do some sledding.
Julia can even haul her sled up the driveway by herself. She just needs a little push to get going down.



As the snow melted more, the kids were less than willing to go down the driveway, since they ended up hydroplaning across slush. The Man came up with a different idea.



When he tired, Antonio took over and ran his sister around the yard.



It wasn't long before they both declared it too cold and too wet & came inside for cartoons.

We just returned from a road trip down to Fresno, California to visit The Man's family.

This is how we stayed sane during the 16 hour drive there



well, that along with copious movies, Raffi CD's and some snacks.

The man was willing to miss out on hours of mind-numbing scenery in exchange for some game time.


Julia always took full advantage of rest stops



The visit was so much fun. The kids and I got to meet so many family members, and each and every one of them were so kind and warm. We all felt like we were at a home away from home.
The Grandparents and their Uncle got to spend a lot of time with the kids too. Julia, ever sketchy about new-ish people, spent a lot of time glued to me or The Man. She did warm up towards the end of the visit.

We made it home safe and sound after another 16 hours on the road.
These kids should get gold medals for being such troopers in the car. I thought for sure it was going to be 1,000% more harrowing.

Tonight was the Christmas party at Julia's daycare.
Santa comes to visit, which is a great opportunity for Santa pictures if you have kids that are freaked out by Mall Santa.

Antonio is not shy around Santa. Julia, on the other hand, would only get this close to him. She put the chair there herself and watched the other kids.






Julia did get close enough to get her present, but only with Daddy right close.



I'd love to have a picture of Julia with Santa, but I'm okay with her being leery of everyone.

Our holiday tradition has been that Antonio put the star up on the tree once we've finished decorating it.
Yes, this year it took two different sessions and almost a week between each, but we did it and it's still early-ish December. I consider it a success.
Okay, back to tree topping. Last year, The Man struggled a bit, and this year it was a bit more taxing.



Perhaps we should offer Antonio a chair or stool or ladder next year.

Julia, never left behind, did the second tree topping.



I think The Man was saying something along the lines of, "Can't she just do it next year?"

After spending part of the afternoon trying to take a few nice pictures of the kids, I have so much more appreciation for my digital camera.
Think back to not too long ago, when the only options we had were manual cameras or photographers. I can see how it was frustrating to take a roll or two of film and have maybe one picture turn out decent enough to share with friends and family.
Now, we can rest assured that we got that picture and laugh at the rest...


Here are the highlites of 30 or so attemtps at a nice holiday picture

Too much flappy hand movement...




The Man was standing to my right trying to get the kids to behave.....
Can you tell?



Girl tries out MegaBig smile, boy is too crouched.



This is my favorite, almost more than the nice ones I got.

This is cookie weekend. Usually I'm not so on the ball, but again, since we're going out of town next week, I've stepped up my efforts ( and caffeine).

Antonio promises to help and here he is with the first project, shelling pistachios for biscotti.




On the list, along with biscotti are macaroons, toffee and two kinds of bourbon balls.
Next year he should be old enough to be in charge of bourbon pouring...

Since we will be going out of town soon, we decided to get our tree and put it up early.
After a slight problem with a leaky tree stand, which put the tree on vacation out on our front porch for a few days (klassy, I know) , we picked up a new tree stand.
We let the kids decorate the tree this year. Handing out as many ornaments as the would put on the tree, surprisingly they got tired of it before we ran out of ornaments.

Antonio has become a fantastic decorator. Julia is still figuring it all out, and after one attempt at hanging each ornament, she'd just throw it at the tree. I guess she thought it would stick or something.

Here's the tree, up in the house, and semi-decorated



Julia was going to be in the picture, but she ran off...