Hello!
Ava tops this year's Christmas tree
We celebrated Christmas ALL December LONG! Why not? :-) This year, we had breakfast with "Santa Cow" at Chik Fil-A on a Saturday morning. Because the place is normally insanely busy when we occasionally go for "Family Night", I was determined to get there at 9 a.m. to beat the rush. It was good that we did... Santa Cow made quite a few rounds by our table, because there were probably only 4 families there at the time.
Whenever Liam saw Santa Cow, he would giggle and want to touch him. Ava wasn't scared and liked looking at him, too. Ava put stickers on a gingerbread house paper at the craft table, to decorate her very own gingerbread house.
Liam giggling and touching Santa Cow
Liam waving "hi" at Santa Cow
After breakfast, we walked over to a local hardware store that was going out of business. We saw they were selling their break room refrigerator for $50, so we snapped it up. Now we have an extra refrigerator to put things when we stock up on sales, when I do extra baking, etc.
Speaking of baking, I REALLY could've used this extra refrigerator a little earlier... This year I made different truffles to take to different holiday parties: Oreo truffles, Kraft Simply Sensational (plain chocolate) truffles, buckeyes and cookie dough truffles. They teetered on a cookie sheet in our refrigerator, strategically placed on the ketchup and any other tall bottle I could find. :-) I think I will make them again next year, as they keep well and I was just able to refill the tray for the next party. They looked fancy, at least! :-)
Tiers of truffles
Some (with plain chocolate inside) were topped with candy cane pieces, others were topped with chopped peanuts
Oreo truffle bombs
Buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate) and cookie dough truffles
Liam didn't stay up quite long enough to decorate the tree with us, but Ava topped the tree with our star, as she has for the past few years. She really enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree. This year's tree was heavily decorated on the lower third. :-)
Ava can sing Christmas songs with the best of them. She knows the words to "Feliz Navidad" and sings them often. Sadly, for Doug, this is his least favorite Christmas song. Ava was also chosen to be "Mary" in her school's Christmas pageant. We took some video of the play. Ava was scared to go on stage, but went as long as I accompanied her. I slowly inched away from her during the song and she did well. :-) She wanted "Mommy", but didn't run into my arms.
We went on a free horse-drawn carriage ride around a local shopping plaza, as well. We met the Hoffmans there and enjoyed a cozy ride in the chilly air. Thanks to the Hoffmans for sharing these pictures!
Doug and Ava waiting in line for the carriage ride
Ava tops this year's Christmas tree
We celebrated Christmas ALL December LONG! Why not? :-) This year, we had breakfast with "Santa Cow" at Chik Fil-A on a Saturday morning. Because the place is normally insanely busy when we occasionally go for "Family Night", I was determined to get there at 9 a.m. to beat the rush. It was good that we did... Santa Cow made quite a few rounds by our table, because there were probably only 4 families there at the time.
Whenever Liam saw Santa Cow, he would giggle and want to touch him. Ava wasn't scared and liked looking at him, too. Ava put stickers on a gingerbread house paper at the craft table, to decorate her very own gingerbread house.
Liam giggling and touching Santa Cow
Liam waving "hi" at Santa Cow
After breakfast, we walked over to a local hardware store that was going out of business. We saw they were selling their break room refrigerator for $50, so we snapped it up. Now we have an extra refrigerator to put things when we stock up on sales, when I do extra baking, etc.
Speaking of baking, I REALLY could've used this extra refrigerator a little earlier... This year I made different truffles to take to different holiday parties: Oreo truffles, Kraft Simply Sensational (plain chocolate) truffles, buckeyes and cookie dough truffles. They teetered on a cookie sheet in our refrigerator, strategically placed on the ketchup and any other tall bottle I could find. :-) I think I will make them again next year, as they keep well and I was just able to refill the tray for the next party. They looked fancy, at least! :-)
Tiers of truffles
Some (with plain chocolate inside) were topped with candy cane pieces, others were topped with chopped peanuts
Oreo truffle bombs
Buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate) and cookie dough truffles
Liam didn't stay up quite long enough to decorate the tree with us, but Ava topped the tree with our star, as she has for the past few years. She really enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree. This year's tree was heavily decorated on the lower third. :-)
Ava can sing Christmas songs with the best of them. She knows the words to "Feliz Navidad" and sings them often. Sadly, for Doug, this is his least favorite Christmas song. Ava was also chosen to be "Mary" in her school's Christmas pageant. We took some video of the play. Ava was scared to go on stage, but went as long as I accompanied her. I slowly inched away from her during the song and she did well. :-) She wanted "Mommy", but didn't run into my arms.
We went on a free horse-drawn carriage ride around a local shopping plaza, as well. We met the Hoffmans there and enjoyed a cozy ride in the chilly air. Thanks to the Hoffmans for sharing these pictures!
Doug and Ava waiting in line for the carriage ride
Our horse-drawn carriage ride with the Hoffmans. The seat was extra cushy. Liam would laugh whenever he saw the horses. :-)
Our family, snuggling up for our carriage ride.
Hoping you had a wonderful holiday season, as well!
Peace, love and holiday happiness,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam
Peace, love and holiday happiness,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam
2 comments:
Beautiful truffles and nice camera work as well! :)
Oh Shelly, I'm getting hungry just looking at those truffles! I didn't think Michigan girls were allowed to like Buckeyes? ;-) (Adorable photos of the little ones too!)
Post a Comment