2010

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Different smiles

The Santa suit

A baby's first Christmas tradition. Penelope made a fine Santa.
Helena was almost too big for the suit.Henry had gotten out of the suit before any pictures were taken.
Nora got a personal visit from Santa.

Christmas Day

First thing there were the stockings to open. Then Helena and Henry had a light breakfast to tide them over. We read the final Advent devotion. My family came over and we had bacon, eggs, coffee cake, and fruit salad for breakfast. Then the kids had stockings:round two. Then we opened a few presents. And dressed the baby as Santa Claus. Then we played with our presents for a while. Then we opened a few more presents and had lunch: salmon, scalloped potatoes, porkkanalaatikko (Finnish carrot gratin), and roasted Brussels sprouts. Helena opened her last presents and took a nap. Then rest of us finished opening gifts. The kids decorated their gingerbread houses. It was a merry Christmas indeed.

Merry Christmas!

We wish you joy as you celebrate God's blessings.

Christmas Eve

For breakfast we had cornmeal waffles with blueberry "compost" (that's what the kids call compote, I don't want to correct them) and whipped cream. The morning was spent assembling puzzles and playing with the aunts. We had our Christmas coffee in the early afternoon. We went to the Christmas Eve service at the Lutheran church and Nora went boldly up to the front when the kids were invited to listen to the Christmas story. Instead of our usual dinner of pizza, we had appetizers this year. The kids each opened one present. After the kids went to bed there was food prepared for the next day, present wrapping, peppermint pattie making instruction, and the baking of gingerbread house parts.

Talkative

Today Penny made a linguistic leap and added b,d, and n to her babbling.

Paper snowflakes

The big kids and I cut up some paper snowflakes today. I used the instructions here for folding to get the six sides. Henry kept wanting to unfold his to see the results of his cuts. The printer paper was a little thick for kids to cut so we switched to magazine ads.

Christmas is almost here!

The end of the Advent countdown calendar for this year. Each package has candies that we eat after the Advent reading each evening. This year we are using devotions with a Jesse Tree theme from the Reformed Church in America.

Lumilyhty

The snow was perfect for packing today. The kids had fun making a snowman and snow fort and watching Mark use his snowball slingshot. And I made this little Finnish snow lantern.

Sugar Cookies

Today the kids frosted and decorated some sugar cookies that we baked yesterday.

Another Christmas craft

Last year was the first time I had ever heard of applesauce ornaments. This year we made some. You mix almost equal parts cinnamon and applesauce into a dough and then roll it out and cut it into shapes with cookie cutters and bake it in a low oven. The kids had fun choosing their shapes and stringing and hanging the ornaments. My kitchen smelled strongly of cinnamon all day. What Christmas tree couldn't use a semi-truck?

Penelope : 6 Months

The baby is half a year old! She is still our happy girl. She plays on her tummy and has started holding things in her hands. She has tried some foods but still finds swallowing solids a little tricky. Every day she is more fun.

Christmas Tree

The kids had a great time decorating the tree yesterday. We got a Fraser fir this year.This shot is staged after the fact because we were so busy putting on ornaments that I didn't take any pictures. My favorite part of the tree is the ornament-dense (and easy-to-reach) lower front.

A Christmas craft

We made a paper chain this morning. Everyone helped with the cutting and gluing. It looks festive!