Christmas Traditions

Today we decorated some Christmas cookies. Merilee and I rolled out the dough and baked our "dairy and egg free" sugar cookies. Then today, we made the "Cara friendly" icing and finished them off. Merilee was there helping me from start to finish! She gets so excited when I let her help me bake. Cara was napping and woke up for the tail end of decorating so I put some frosting in her mouth and she would throw a fit until I gave her more. She is so limited on the "treats" she CAN have, so I gave her plenty of frosting. She is so funny because when she sees one of us eating she will come up and open her mouth, saying AWWW!! Many times she gets told, "No Cara you can't eat this". "How about something else, like raisins?"

Sunday we are having our official birthday party for Jesus;) We are making a red velvet birthday cake and watching "The Nativity" put out by our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Merilee totally knows that we have Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Her favorite part of Christmas is the star of Bethlehem. She has to mention it every chance she gets! Maybe she will be into astronomy?

I've tried to fit in as may Christmasy activities I could this year, but we haven't enjoyed much time with friends....yet. The best part of Christmas is being with family and friends. We will get to see some family, but I've still felt kinda secluded and lonely at times lately. Maybe that is because we haven't gone shopping crazy everyday. In fact we spent 10 minutes at Walmart today to pick up some toiletries. Other than that, I have not gone anywhere besides the gym 4 times and mutual on Wednesday. That has been the case the last few weeks actually. Well, this post has become lengthy, so here are some pictures of our cookie decorating.

Was I really bad this year?

So, there have been a few unplanned semi-crisis that have happened these last few weeks that makes me wonder if "Santa" is saving that coal and giving me trials. First, we had to replace the breaks on the van. This could have been a lot worse. Justin knew a guy at work who has connections to a mechanic shop in Shamrock and they were able to get the van in the air and replace the breaks with no charge for labor. Second, it has been too cold these last couple days for Justin to be able to work his part-time job, thus we are out of some finances. And then today, the washing machine didn't drain and I didn't realize until too late. I had washed all the sheets and quilts since I had been sick and ran about 4 loads through. I stepped into the laundry room and it was a wading pool. I squished the water out from under our kitchen floor as much as I could but it is probably ruined. It is laminate and the padding underneath is soaked and I can't get to it to get the water out unless I rip the floor out. So, along with all the other things on our list to spend with tax return money may be another new floor. We put in the floor when we moved here 3 years ago, hoping to move in a couple years and have some nice updates done to the house. But, it looks like we will be here at least another couple years and have to redo some. I just don't know what to do to fix it. Justin probably won't be able to do anything about it for a few days. And I still have laundry..... Well, there is my rant. I know it could be worse and that these things are just inconveniences, but I wanted the holidays to be trouble-free. Maybe there is hope for the new year.

Pictures

This was our Thanksgiving at Justin's sister, Carrie's, house. Merilee and her cousin, Coyt, are both getting ready to blow out their birthday candles. Coyt's birthday was Merilee's due date, the 17th. Striking family resemblance, huh!

This is a picture of Merilee's first piece of "art". She drew this cat and was so proud of it. Merilee said the cat's tail was inside it's body and that is why she didn't draw it. It is amazing how far her drawing has come in a few short months.

Cara and Merilee after playing with the Christmas toys at Walmart. It wasn't very busy in the store so we took over the aisle and had fun dancing to all the musical stuffed toys.

Visiting with Santa at Justin's work party. Merilee has always loved Santa...Cara, not so much!

Cara and Merilee playing at the play center at the Promenade in Tulsa. We went to visit Justin's sister and her family. Their twin boys are one day older than Cara. It was pretty crazy at the mall on a Saturday afternoon!!

Leighanne and Cara at the play center.

Another picture of Merilee and Santa. This was Walmart's Santa and they printed a free 5x7 from the photo center! However, they only print one so we chose to have a screaming Cara in the picture too (for the memory, ha!)


We also went and visited some good friend of ours who recently had a baby girl (six weeks ago). Merilee tried to help too much but did really well holding Kaylena. I just have to say (because she will probably read this) that this family is a keeper! Calista and I have shared a lot growing up and we are still good friends. Now we can share in the trials and joys of motherhood!! We love you guys. P.S. Kaylena is beautiful...I can't remember if I told you that the other day.

Well that catches everyone up on our activities the last week or so....until next time!!

Parties!!

Tonight is Justin's work Christmas party. They usually have catered food and tons of people. We did not go last year because he was working the evening shift. I am just glad because I will not have to cook. This morning we took Merilee to her art class and then was planning to go to Walmart to visit Santa, but Justin had the day wrong and Santa does not visit until tomorrow. Instead we played with all the Christmas toys and I got some fun pictures of the girls. I will have to post them later. I just finished being really productive around the house and thought I would post a quick update on our day so far. I have lots of ideas of picture posts so stay tuned!

Christmas gifts

What the heck does someone get for a 15 month old girl? I have no idea what to get Cara for Christmas. Everything I see in the paper or at the store would be 'perfect' for Merilee. Cara has just played with all of Merilee's things up to this point. Anything I do think of, Merilee would probably claim it, so it doesn't really seem like a gift just for Cara. I don't want random/miscellaneous toys laying around taking up space. I want them to really get some good playing out of the toys. I also need it to stay around $10. Any ideas? What are you getting your kids for Christmas? I am running out of time!

Grateful

We had a wonderful thanksgiving with both sides of our family. I am not sure how much longer we will be able to do both families for holidays...it gets really complicated and hectic. We don't visit as often as we used to, so it was nice to have lots of family around. Which brings me to the purpose of my post...things I am grateful for.

• 
  the holiday season when we can visit family and friends



• music--it makes the world sound beautiful



• food--so that we can experience all the senses at once!



• a husband who provides for our family, no matter what



• two beautiful girls for me to love and learn from



• a cozy house that is OURS



• staying home and manning the fort



• my beliefs and the happiness I feel because of the truths I know