Seriously?

We like to make it a family outing, complete with dinner, when we go to see Santa every year (post coming soon on that). We like to go to IHOP for the occasion, but with Seth's preschool program (post coming soon on that too) that same night and time running short, we opted for Wendy's. Seth's kid's meal came with THE most complicated toy I've seen. There were 36 seperate pieces and two pages of instructions (here's just one page):

I'm pretty good at puzzles and putting things together, and it still took me 25 minutes to come up with this:

After all that, guess how long it took for it to look like this:

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I gathered up the pieces and threw them away, and it was out of sight out of mind, which is OK with me because it's less little pieces of something to keep track of.

My, how they grow!

Years ago I bought a little wooden Christmas stool at an after-holiday sale as a fun addition to our decorations. Then along came kids and it's become tradition to have them sit on it for photos each year so we can see just how much they've grown.

Seth's first Christmas 2006 (3 months old):



Christmas 2010:

Lydia's first Christmas 2009 (9 months old):



Christmas 2010:

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes...

Yes, these are a few of my very, very, very favorite things. We don't get snow here very often, but when we do, like what happened just before Thanksgiving, it takes me back to a childhood of puffy coats and moon boots, inner tubing (Is it "inner" or "inter"? Anyway, you know what I mean) and hot chocolate, thermal unders and the familiar *crunch*crunch* underfoot.

Between waking up from naps and the early setting sun, we didn't have much time for playing, but here are our cute little snowballs out for some fun.

I must have forgotten most of what I know about building snowmen, because for the life of me I couldn't pack the stuff into any recognizable shape. I think throughout the day, the moisture melted through the cracks in the deck and what was left on top was dry powder. Ever try making a snowman out of powdered sugar? Doesn't work too well. No matter. Seth was perfectly happy making a snow mountain, as seen posing next to his Mini-Rainier.

I hope we haven't seen the end of the pretty white stuff this season! We even built a fire in our rarely-used wood-burning stove and enjoyed a toasty evening all together. That's one of my favorite things too!