Fire and Ice

It was not too cold, and quite snowy, during winter break, which meant it was perfect for being outside! We spent a lot of time playing in the snow, sledding and cross-country skiing!

The girls are terrific skiers now. We were so proud of how well they do. They laugh when they fall down, get up easily and just keep going. They have great attitudes. We usually do the half-mile loop a couple of times. One of the times we went, Jia did the half-mile loop three times to prepare herself for doing the mile-and-a-half loop. She's ready!

We also visited the Ice Castle at the Mall of America. We loved how it changed colors!

We spent New Year's Eve with our friends, Binh and John and their kids. We did our usual fun cheese fondue. Dippers this year included sweet potatoes, bread, pretzels, tomatoes, hot dogs, apples, grapes and broccoli. We then decided to attend a Candlelight and Ice Walk across the marsh at our nearby nature center. It was COLD, but toasted marshmallows and cocoa warmed us up. So did many giggles on the sleds!

 

 

 

 

A great start to the new year!

How swede it is!

Joe is of Swedish heritage and the American Swedish Institute is always beautiful at the holidays, so we make a point to visit every year. The girls loved watching the original Pippi Longstocking movie again, and we all laughed at her antics.

 

We always love walking around the beautiful castle-like building, and seeing all the Christmas displays.

 Writing a letter to Tomte.

Playing in the children's area!

We ate (after an hour and a half wait) at their fabulous new restaurant, Fika. The food was incredible! A yummy time was had by all.

Our elf

We got an Elf on the Shelf this year. I'd seen so many cute elf ideas on Pinterest, and thought it would be fun to have it be part of our Christmas tradition. We didn't follow the normal rules though. I knew that Jia would never believe that this floppy little toy comes alive and flies back to report to Santa every night. (Jia is already a Santa skeptic.) Also, for Willa, the idea of an elf creeping around our house every night was well, creepy. Plus, we don't do the naughty/nice list for Santa anyway. In our house, Santa is benevolent and does not judge. So, we all took turns hiding the elf and having him do silly things. Here are a few:

The girls loved this and we'll definitely do it again next year!

Christmas

Christmas in photos (and a few words):

I love that Jia was fully dressed in her Christmas outfit and ready to celebrate immediately when they came down the stairs.

The girls were very excited about their new dolls from Santa.

 

 They loved all their other toys as well.

 

Are we matching outfit people? I guess so! They looked so beautiful in these dresses.

We celebrated Christmas with the rest of the family too.

Mac was so cute!

Merry Merry, part 2

The holiday spirit continues! We attended some holiday activities at the Arboretum. We decorated cookies (with Miss Minnesota and Miss Outstanding Teen, no less). The girls loved shopping at the kid store (where kids buy their parents gifts with adult helpers). The girls spent almost an hour in the store picking out our gifts and decorating our bags. They took their jobs very seriously and were so excited about it. But the most fun part of the day was when they played a life-sized game of Candyland! They loved skipping through the Lollipop Woods and Gumdrop Mountain.

 

  

 

Willa sang in her holiday program at school. Here they are getting ready to go:

 

Willa and her good bud, Katie, are ready to sing!

  

Almost! There were some pre-concert sillies!

My favorite song is always, "This little light of mine," which was particularly amusing this year as the kids were given flashlights for it.

We also visited the Lights in the Park at Lake Phalen. To prepare, I laid out the girls' jammies along with a ticket for the night.

We then gave them treats and cocoa in the car. Willa had such a long day that she spent a good part of the drive there doing this (notice she is still clutching her marshmallow). Thankfully we were able to rouse her when we finally arrived!

We got a kick out of the "under the sea" Christmas theme this year!

We made our annual gingerbread house with our friends, the Thompsons. Yum!

We also made a batch of cinnamon gold glitter playdough. Our two joyful bakers rolled and patted, and then sold the sweet treats in their shop and served them at the cafe. Later, we baked a few and painted them for ornaments. Such a fun, sweet-smelling activity!

 

 

 

   

Coming soon...Christmas!