My Birthday

 

Snow Bunny

 

Our most recent snow creation:  Snow bunny

 

 

The Gob Thief

 

       Over the holidays, we had the pleasure of a wonderful weekend visit with Brian's parents.  Brian's Mom kindly brought homemade chocolate gobs which were kept high up, far out of the reach of little fingers--or so we thought.  I ran downstairs with Liliana for two minutes and the following sequence of photos is what I saw upon my return:

 

1. Startled at being caught.

2.  Tickled by her own antics. (yes, she climbed onto the table using a stool and a chair and from there reached the gob container up on the counter, opened it, and grabbed one in each hand)



3. Pure happiness.

4. Ignoring my presence and focusing on the yumminess.

Snowball, Snow angels, and Snowmen

Happiness is ... a snowy day, a Mommy, a Daddy, and two little sugar plums playing in the snow. 

 

 

 



Snowball!


 
 
 

Note the double hat look!

       We made two snowmen (Liliana and I made the "snowman baby" perched atop a garden urn while Liliana and Daddy made the "snowman Mommy"--and yes, Brian has already pointed out to me that technically it probably should be a "snowwoman Mommy" but somehow that doesn't sound right).  One of my favorite moments was when Liliana turned to see Vera Rose laying on her back in the snow (she had just fallen backwards as she tried to maneuver through the deep snow) and Liliana squealed, "Making snow angels, baby? I make snow angels, too, Vera Rose baby." and promptly fell backwards into the snow to make snow angels while I rescued the flailing, not-actually-trying-to-make-snow-angels toddler from the snowdrift.

       Liliana and Vera Rose loved wearing their new mittens from Santa while throwing snowballs at each other.  They giggled throughout the entire snowball fight, mainly, I suspect, because none of their snowballs ever hit their target!
 

Images of our Christmas Sugar Plums

Images from our Christmas:

Vera Rose just discovering that there is chocolate in her stocking.

 

Liliana finding one of her most-asked for items; she continually would mention, "Santa is going to bring me red mittens and a candycane for my stocking" (probably based on one of the Little House picture books that we read) and Santa did.

 

 

 

Christmas Eve Star Bread

The Christmas Star Bread

Liliana with cousin Rowan and one of the star bread loaves. 
Both 3-year-olds were the perfect age to be tickled and excited over happy, smiling bread stars.

       Since some time in the 1980's, my family has celebrated Christmas Eve over chicken soup (with holiday shaped noodles) and star bread.  The bread was my Mom's homemade "Plaited Bread" which was shaped into a star which had five points--one point for each of my family.  I'm not sure how it started, but we would make a wish, each grab a point of the star (which was placed in the center of the dinner table), and pull off our piece.  The person with the largest section of bread was the "winner" whose wish would come true. 
       As we married and had children, the star bread has had increasing numbers of points (sometimes looking more like a sun) or else we've made multiple bread stars, depending on who would be at my parents' home on Christmas eve.  It is always a visual representation of how many family members are breaking bread together on the Holy night of Christmas Eve.