Christmas Magic

I started this post in early December... and am just now getting around to finishing it...

This morning we pulled the tree up from downstairs along with all the other Christmas decorations.  It snowed enough last night to coat everything outside and has continued to fall throughout the day blanketing everything in sparkly white.  Perfect weather to deck our halls.  As soon as I removed Santa from his wrappings (a gift from Grandma Duse, Jon's grandmother) Lydia immediately lost all enthusiasm and declared "I don't like him.  Not one little bit."  The Cat and the Hat is a regular read around here.  This Santa is bigger than Sophie and nice and soft.  He has batteries and reads The Night Before Christmas, but not this year.  Lyds would not have anything to do with him.  Sophie, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of this stuffed Santa!  She hugged him and jumped on him and wrestled with him until he was no longer available because he was forced to find a new home, back in the basement.  He'll reappear next year and we'll look forward to seeing what sort of response his presence brings.

Sophie's new best friend

Lydia keeping her distance

Lydia loved the decorations we hung on the tree.  Both girls loved the nativity set and wanted a sheep of their own.  The candy canes were super exciting and Sophie wanted nothing to do with her green beans (a veggie she's not very keen on to begin with) after Lyds shared with her an open peppermint candy cane.

The holidays were magical and memorable and we're still talking about them.  We loved having family over and especially enjoyed interactions between little cousins, although we could do without spreading germs... Sorry Milo!!  We really can't seem to get together with the Israelsen's without making each other sick. :(  The dancing cat from Grandma Frazier was terrifying to begin with, but before long Lydia was calling herself the Dancing Cat and singing AristoCat songs.  The girls loved their ginormous stuffed animals and I loved watching Lydia try to drag her horse up to bed with her.

Personally I wish that I could carry Auntie Abby around in my pocket as my personal trainer and I know the girls wouldn't object to having her around.  Jon felt the same way.  Lydia made a new best friend in Paul and could not get enough of him.  One of my favorite moments with Lyds was hearing her say, "Where'd the dude go?" in her sweet little voice.  Was she referring to Paul?  We concluded that she'd heard Paul call Milo dude and picked up on it right away as she does so many other things.  Playing the Loser game with Sarah and Paul was awesome, but I think I enjoyed watching Sarah gamble in Farkle even more.  Vegas would not be good to her or for her.  New Year's Eve with the fam was fantastic.  Uncle Jarom read How the Grinch Stole Christmas and we sat around talking for not nearly long enough.

The owl rocking chair Jon made for little Leila was one of my absolute favorite gifts ever, but more on that later (in another post).  Earlier in December we came home to find this beautiful Nativity parked in our front yard with a light shining on it.  A gift made by Grandpa Frazier and one we look forward to displaying each year. The church bags Aunt Lizzie made the girls are genius and hold the cute and creative puzzles Aunt Stacey made for the girls perfectly.  I loved that Sophie had stranger danger moments, but not always.  Sometimes she'd be doing great, and then you'd laugh too loud and immediately pay for it.  Moving Jarom and Brittany into the parent's basement was definitely good times.  So glad Brother Jon didn't get the Stott's car stuck in the snow too horribly and Lyds warmed up to him pretty quickly.  Although I wasn't there for it, hearing about the epic sledding adventure was riveting.  Seeing all the bandages on little Juicy's hands and Abby's torn jacket made it all the more real for us.  Lydia loved sledding with her Frazier cousins and probably would have stayed outside all Christmas Eve if we'd let her.  I'm glad that my Jon and Derek got to have their Halo adventure and we loved the visits to Amber and Isaac's and Will and Summer's for delicious breakfast foods.  I believe Uncle Tophe made it through the holidays with his title of Favorite Uncle still in tact.  And visiting Grandpa Andrus was a treat as always.  Is he really 92?!

Lydia has written a story inspired by her little sister and a princess book she got from her Aunt Cathy.  She holds the little book as she says  "Once there was a baby who liked to steal things.  But then she changed her mind."  Based on a true story. ;).

We're "cleaning up Christmas" on a daily basis.  In fact, every time we tidy anything up, we're "cleaning up Christmas."  Which reminds me, Lydia has been saying/doing some super awesome things lately, but this post is already much longer than I'd originally planned, so those tales will have to wait for another day.