Winter day

Between the snow and the passing of Thanksgiving, we feel like we're definitely in winter now (even if the calendar says we aren't quite there yet).

We got out decorations from last year, and the girls had fun with Christmas books, coloring pages, and hats that they hadn't seen in a year.

They especially loved the return of the Christmas stockings!

We played outside at our house, making snowmen and snowforts (but mostly pretending, because they like the action better than the result).

Clara especially liked eating the snow!

G-Daddy even braved the outdoors with us - dressed appropriately for the 20 degree weather, of course.

Later in the day, we went to Caras park to take the girls sledding for the first time.

Two girls, ready to conquer the hill!

With Christina's sprained ankle, it was up to Steve to help the girls actually sled - and he absolutely rose to the challenge.  He kept them having a blast for a good hour.

They absolutely LOVED this.  If we had brought our video camera, we would have preserved for you the beautiful sound of their laughter pealing out as they slid down this hill.  An over-abundance of pictures (with poor exposure) of the girls on only slightly-snowy hills will have to suffice to get the idea across.  To reiterate - they LOVED this!

They even enjoyed watching Steve take a turn down the hill!

 Towards the end, they were engaging in some pretty dramatic flops at the end of their runs down the hill.

Which turned into snow-angel making.

It was so very fun!  We came home and had hot chocolate with marshmallows, and made some cupcakes to celebrate Nana Rose's birthday.  Then, after dinner, we watched some Shirley Temple movies that G-Daddy brought for the girls. 

They watched Shirley tap-dancing up the stairs a few times, then began tap-dancing themselves all over the living room!  It was a hard wind-down to bed, but a very, very enjoyable day and evening together!

Thanksgiving

We love Thanksgiving!   This was one of the most fun ever, for many reasons.  One was that the girls were excited, too, and were in the fray with us all day (mostly happily).

We woke early and started shaping the roll dough we made up yesterday.  Elena and Clara are often up "helping" cook, but today they REALLY helped!  They learned how to make crescent rolls, and once they figured out the technique, they did all four dozen with Christina.  She only had to re-roll a few of them.

They would repeat the directions: "Gently assage (massage) the dough, then roll tightly!" 

Steve took Elena and Clara to get doughnuts and some last minute grocery supplies, while Christina cleaned and cooked.  Then we all reconvened to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which the girls were finally old enough to really enjoy. 

Steve took Clara to go pick up Nana and G-Daddy at the airport, and Elena stayed to help Christina and Caryn cook.

C

Helping Caryn pick out the chocolate chips to melt so that we could dip the cream puffs in them.

Showing Christina how many chocolate chips she should get to eat before dinner:

Clara, Nana, and Caryn got right down to cooking as soon as the airport run was done.  Clara was apparently a perfect green bean snapper!

At the sandwich station for our mid-morning snack to hold us over, Clara wanted to make everyone a "sammich."

Our place settings this year - Elena and Clara helped Christina sew up new napkins for our meal, and we made these napkin ring/name tags, too.

The real place-setting expert in this house is Steve, though - he always makes sure all the silverware is facing the right way.

How many cooks can you fit in a few square feet of space??

Making the gravy (accidentally out of the good Chardonnay instead of the cooking Chardonnay - but it tasted good!).

The scene outside (it never stopped snowing today, but it was the sort of beautiful, soft snowfall that makes everything look pretty).

And the scene inside - here's the kids table (two grandmas in attendance both brought gifts for all the kids to play with at their table).

...and the adults.

It was a great, nearly stress-free day.  And at the end of it, the girls snuggled up to G-Daddy to watch Shaun the Sheep (this must have been a "scary" part!) and then headed straight to bed.  Thankful, thankful, thankful.