Christmas Week

So the days leading up to Christmas were a lot of activity around our house, minus Dad who caught the flu; but we kept things rolling.

Started out making some Christmas cookies.

While the cookies baked Mae decided to memorize The Joy of Cooking, a la Will Hunting.

Then we decorated them.

Oh, and I decorated paper to use as our Christmas present paper for Nana and Papa.

Next post will be some rockin photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas morn'.

Merry Christmas

Santa...!

Don't even think of skipping my house.

Love always,
Mabel

(Mae wanted to pen a post here so I thought I'd let her in on the action. She was misbehaving a bit and Mom and Dad told her that Santa is watching and there is a chance, albeit a slight one, that he could skip our house. Probably not a good idea, jolly big man.)

CHRISTMAS SHOW!!

So I had my first Christmas Show the other day at St. Helen's. You might have seen me practicing for the show, but this was the real thing. Before mom and Dad came to the show Mae got dressed for the festivities.

You can see me right there in the front row, just to the right of the piano lady player's head. I was told they wanted the stars of the show in the front row... yep, she wasn't born yesterday, was she?

And a post-show-so-proud-of-myself smile.

Back in my classroom I asked Mom to get a picture of me with my best friend Nadia. We are, as they say, thick as thieves around St. Helen and I just got her phone number the other day so I can't wait to hang out with her over Christmas Break.

Mae wanted in on the action, she's kind of our class mascot.

Mae, over with the antlers, dude! There, much better.

And then, before I left, I asked Michael to take a picture with me. About three weeks ago Michael asked me to marry him (no joke). At the time I "thought it was silly and walked away," but I figured if I'm gonna marry this chap, he should at least meet my dad.  And how could you not approve of that smile!

Christmas card-worthy post show family pic.

Kansas City, There We Went

So I'm going back a bit but we missed telling you about Thanksgiving. Showed up at Midway Airport at 5:15am, stood in line for 2+ hours only to find our flight cancelled. ROAD TRIP!! So we jumped in the car and drove there.

Now, we forgot to bring the camera so we don't have all the pics I'd like to share with you, but I did want to show you some pics of our really good friends there.

Yes, Grandma and Grandpa and Nonie and Aunt Erica and the whole gang was there, but there was a special place in our hearts for these two little fellas.

DISCLAIMER: Buddy, Nana's dog, if you are reading this, I urge you to turn away in an attempt to save your heart from being broken.

This is Trevor, who Mae was slightly obsessed with.

Kisses...

Hugs...

And a whole lotta love...

Mae had to go potty so I actually get five seconds with Trevor, too.

And this is Jesse, Aunt Erica's newest addition to her family... he is a giant, probably the size of 17 Mabels put together. It was kind of like having a black bear in the house.

And here is a great picture of Nonie and me. She is not a dog, though sometimes Dad calls her one; as in, "Hey Nonie, you old dog, what are you having for breakfast?" So there's that.

Here We Come-A-Caroling

Hair Salon

Well, I'm getting pretty good at doing my own hair every morning before I come down for breakfast so I asked Mae if she wanted me to do her hair and she was really excited.

So we set up shop in the bathroom and got started. First we looked through our accessory options and then I went to work.

After I got the back pony done with a trifecta band, I had one last piece that was the front of her hair coming to the back.

Eventually Mom helped me out with that piece because it kept falling out, but the rest of this masterpiece is all mine.