Tis the Season for Decorations

These are two of my new favourites. The centrepiece is made of Christmas decorations that I got last year after Christmas, (the balls, pears, and a divine feather wreath - unfortunately, you can't see it well from this angle) pinecones from some old potpourri, a cheap-o vase from Value Village and a neat brown, leather-looking plate my mom gave me. 

Happiness on a platter. 

This is a card holder that I made out of an old, hardcover book. I made a few of these for the sale and I had one left over, so it became mine. 

Of course, Gracie's new Advent Calendar is another favourite, but it got a whole post to itself,  awhile back. 

I am all caught up on my little mini Christmas album and when I closed it tonight, it made me do a little happy dance (very little, everyone else is in bed, and I all ready think I may be going a little crazy, I don't need the neighbours to have evidence). 

This is a great project. It makes me think about Christmas every day and captures all of the little things that go on in our household. 

I'm definitely in the Christmas Spirit this year! 

Fa La La La La La La La La!

Decorating Cookies

Gracie and I decorated all 8 dozen cookies today! Wowza!

She was very diligent at first. 

This is the exact moment she realized this was icing... Why was it going on the cookie when it could go  directly into her mouth??

Some of the finished masterpieces and the Cookie Artist.

Apron Buddies. Gracie tested the cookies and gave them a resounding "Deeelishous!'

*****

 Batch two started off well.

 I convinced her not to lick the spatula and gave her a brush to paint on the icing.  

Then, I realized the icing was being painted on the counter. 

Gracie's beautiful, delicious cookies! Notice they are sprinkled with dinosaurs, race cars, and every colour of sprinkles under the rainbow. These are cookies for all seasons.

Legislature Lights

We visited the Legislative Grounds today to see all the Christmas trees lit up. It was really pretty. Even had a bit of snow to make it feel more like Christmas.

Don't you LOVE my new camera?? I do. These were all taken without flash and held by hand!!! Awesome!

Chinese Martha Stewart

I love baking and Gracie is such a big help, I thought we'd stay home from strollersize this morning and get some Christmas baking done!

Here's my Primo egg cracker, preparing for a pitch.....

And, Bam! into the bowl it goes!

Oh yes, and she's wearing a toque for phase one of this production...

Preparing to roll out the dough...

(Note: she is now wearing her apron and no toque) 

 The flour is good and spread...

I actually get dough!!

Who needs the rolling pin now that there's dough?

 Hands are so much better!

Now that I cleared the whole morning to make cookies, I doubled the recipe. 

Might as well make lots, I thought.... Gracie loves making cookies, I thought.... nope. Today, she didn't have the patience. I made 8 dozen freakin' sugar cookies and she stayed for 6.... Not 6 dozen. 

Six cookies.

Luckily, she had tons of new toys to distract her, so I cracked through the rest by myself while she played. With just two batches left, she got bored, so I turned on a 20 minute video and she learned Chinese (really, she loves this cartoon where they teach the kids Chinese).

Not bad, just not the morning I expected.

And, if you were thinking, "My these photos look nice," they do!! They were taken with my new Christmas present! 

Even unedited, they look so much better than my old camera's pictures. It wasn't entirely my fault! Hooray!

Christmas Morning

We woke up on 'our' Christmas morning to snow.....

 and Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk.....

and the carrots were gone....

 And... wait! What's this??!!

HUGE stockings were filled to overflowing!

 Gracie checked hers out. It seems Santa left his whole sack just for her!

 There were markers, 

 and Disney Princesses,

 and sooooo many treats for such a good little girl! 

(Who does Santa think he is, tucking a Flames jersey in her stocking??)

 Even dad got goodies!

 And Bailey!

 And mom!

 Now presents? Wow!

 A cash register! 

Wow!! We got spoiled this Christmas! Thanks Santa!

Getting Ready...

Santa is coming early to our house. We made special arrangements because we'll be away, so he's coming TONIGHT!!!!

Gracie got milk and cookies ready for him and set out carrots for the reindeer. 

She's excited!!

Day 16-Candy Cane Lane

I need to post which day these are for on the post, because I can't keep my days straight anymore.

We ventured out to Candy Cane Lane last night, which was fun, but Maizie's house is hands down, the big winner. Even though there were 8 blocks of houses decorated, Maizie's probably had more decorations jammed onto one yard. I like excess...

Here are some photos of our walk:

Is this sac religious?? The camel had a saddle....

and the sheep... well, I have no defence for the sheep....

This tree had to be forty feet tall, and was decorated so well, even though the picture doesn't really show it.

And this one was little, but beautiful! It looked like it was all made of ice. 

Gracie also mastered the BIG slide at strollersize. She's been a little too afraid to try this slide, and it's been months of looking at it, and slowly making her way up three steps, before  turning around and finding somewhere else to play. I'll admit it made me nervous, too. It's at the end of an obstacle course, so I can't help her, and it's about 5 feet up, which she has to climb, and then the same distance down (and it's not a gradual drop).

Yesterday, she did it!!

Her new friend Cadence was making the climb and Gracie kind of looked at her like, "Huh, if she can do it, I can do it." and she was off.

She went up and down about 8 times before I told her we had to go.

Fear vanquished!

These two girls were so cute. While we stretched, after class, they sat together on my mat and shared their snacks, pooling together to make a little picnic. Then, they played follow the leader (guess who was the leader) and jumped and played Ring around the Rosy in the jumpy castle together.

Gracie slept like a dream yesterday with the amount of giggling and running these two were doing. Merry Christmas to me!

Cuddling on the Couch

Some photos from dad's phone...

Just cuddling on the couch before bed. 

Bad parent??

Just to make you laugh, and Gracie cringe when she's older.....

Advent Calendar

Grams and Papa got Gracie this little Advent Calendar and filled it full of 25 days of goodies. 

It's been so much fun for her. She gets to practice her numbers, and we use it as incentive to finish her supper (since she opens it after supper), plus, she gets a new little treat or toy every day! 

So lucky!