The One About Christmas

The Santa visit this year was a success! Finn is too young to be scared yet, and the girls are both old enough to be excited about it, so no tears this year. The Santa at our mall up here is seriously the nicest guy, we've seen him for three years now, and he is just so kind to the children. Nora asked him for a Jasmine doll, and T requested a gingerbread house. Finn just sat there.

We went to see a Christmas light display on Christmas Eve. Teresa love, loved it! She didn't at all mind standing out in the freezing cold, dancing to the music and watching the lights. The owner of the house was out handing out candy canes and every time he walked by she would say "I just LOVE your lights!". She insisted that Nora and Daddy get out of the car for a picture at least.

The girls were so sweet on Christmas Eve. They had been a little crazy with all the packages that had been arriving at our house for the past month, it was so hard for them to never get to open any of them, so we finally let them unpack the presents sent by family and put them under the tree. After they got all the presents set out Teresa kept saying "Oh, we are so lucky that so many people love us!".

Finn got to be the first one down Christmas morning. He wasn't exactly overwhelmed by what Santa had brought.

Teresa was much more impressed. 

The "most awesome guitar that I've been wanting for my whole entire life!".

Nora was pretty excited as well, of course. 

She's been asking for a Jasmine doll for the past few months. Any time Santa came up she would talk about how that was what she was going to ask him for. Jasmine is her very favourite princess, though I'm fairly sure she has never actually seen Aladdin. Anyway, there isn't really very much Jasmine merchandise out right now, and I seriously had to scour the far reaches of the internet to find one that wasn't a huge, hard plastic one, or wasn't eighty dollars. This doll was on eBay, and was pretty much the only Jasmine doll in existence that worked, and after a nail biting, down to the minute bid-off she was ours! I'm pretty sure she hasn't put her down since. 

  

She was also suuuuuper excited about the scissors Santa left in her stocking.

  

T and Nora were more than happy to help Finn open up his very first Christmas present.

  

And I'm pretty sure I will be making them sit like this for pictures for many years to come. They will love it!

Finn is a giant baby, and I wanted to see the height difference between him and Nora the other day. T came over as well to complete the line up. It was pretty cute. At least, it was cute until Nora decided to pick Finn up by squeezing him around the neck and cut off his air supply. He really is too big for her to hold. Poor Nora, she will climb up on the couch all excited to hold him, and then when I give him to her they both start to slowly tip over and she says "Oh, I think he is tooooooo big for me!".

  

Our super cute little rockstars. 

They have been entertaining us with some fabulous songs all week. Of course, the very first time T picked up her guitar, she started strumming it and singing "goin on the rails of this crazy train". Sigh. You can hear some more variations of that song below. 

And Finn is handsome.

Snow Day

Sleepy Finn...wearing another of Marc's old sweaters. Marc was a November baby, and I know he was too tiny to have worn this his first winter, so I'm guessing this was from when he was already one-ish?

We got our first good snow of the winter. It made poor T and Nora think it was Christmas already. 

Tasting the first flurries. Nora insisted on wearing these way-too-big rain boots the whole time.

Nora was NOT a fan of snow-jumping on the trampoline. She kept slipping and eventually just hunkered down there while T kept on bouncing. She is too much of a ham to miss a good picture opportunity, though.

The next morning there was really a good covering, and we were able to pull out the sled. So. I'm kind of a big snow Scrooge, because I haaaaaaaate getting the girls all prepped to go play in the snow. It takes forever to get them all layered up (maybe one day we will accept our fate of living in a snowy climate and purchase actual winter wear?) and then they pretty much only stay outside until their hands get wet. Which is almost immediately, because we never have adequate gloves. And then it is so messy taking their snow-drenched clothes off in the house, and I totally make them pretty much strip down on the porch in the cold so they don't get dirty snow everywhere in my house.

 Anyway, all that to say I was SO pleasantly surprised when they spent a whole hour and a half playing in the snow this time! It was great. They had so much fun. Our little neighbor that is a bit older than Nora came out to play, too, and they all had so much fun with the sled.

Ha! Nora was a rascal and would enjoy a nice little ride in the sled and then never once helped bring it back up the hill. She would always just play around at the bottom until T and Ridley had carried it back up for another go.

  

Try not to be jealous of my winter-wear.

Finn was pretty indifferent about the snow. Next year. 

Nora ditched the sledding for a while to throw snowballs. She was so funny, she was chasing me around with a snowball and paused for a second, then scooped up some more snow and said "I can throw TWO snowballs!", then a few seconds later she scooped up some more "Wait, I can throw THREE snowballs!".

  

One for each hand...

Finn is much happier inside...

This baby loves to chomp on his hands. He is always trying to shove both of them as far in there as he can. You would think that would mean he would like a paci but, much to Nora's chagrin, he does not.