Let it Snow!

We've had quite a bit of snow here in the past week. Last Friday, the 5th, schools let out 2 hours early because it was really coming down hard. By the time it let up on Saturday, we had about a foot! Then, just as we "dug out" from that, a second storm dropped an additional 6 inches on us. Emma sure has loved having Mommy home, and we've been out in the snow nearly every day. She had a little trouble walking in it until it froze over! Emma has now built 6 snowmen over the course of the winter! "Frosty the 6th" is the little one you see...it wasn't very good packing snow, but we did have fun on the swing and slide!

Emma's Reading!

Emma loves books, so it wasn't all that surprising when she started memorizing parts of her favorites. However, we were thrilled when she picked up "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" and "read" it cover to cover!

Fun with Friend Maci!

Todd, Emma and I got together with friends from church for a game night. Their daughter Maci is just 5 months younger than Emma, so they get along well. However, they were more interested in playing with their new Christmas toys, swiping our game pieces, and eating than in interacting with each other. Right before we left, the girls finally decided to play together by chasing each other back and forth!

Christmas!

After all of our holiday travels, it was nice to be home for Christmas! Emma slept until 11 AM!!! (We certainly don't expect a repeat of that on Christmas again until she's about 15!) We still had plenty of time to open gifts from Santa. Emma's main gift was a kitchen, which she loved and begs us every chance she gets to "pway kitchen"! My family came around 2, and with everybody chipping in, we had a nice ham dinner (not something we could have pulled off by ourselves after several days out of town). Emma also enjoyed the cake she'd asked for, and we all sang happy birthday to baby Jesus!

The Grand Tour of Ohio

We have a lot of family spread out across Ohio, and each year we attempt to see them all. This year we went to Toledo first to visit Todd's family from the 21st to the 24th. While we were there, we saw some of Todd's extended family as well, including his aunt and uncle from North Carolina and his cousin who is studying in Texas. We also took in the zoo lights and Children's Wonderland, a beautiful display of animated Christmas characters. In this picture Emma's checking out Cindy Lou Who from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" (who, appropriately, is "no more than two" and sports pigtails suspiciously like Emma's)! Emma got to ride the Christmas train and play in a "toddlers only" inflatable fort at the Wonderland place as well. We headed to Mansfield on Christmas Eve for a visit with Papa Isch's family. So Emma wouldn't miss Santa, we arrived home around midnight Christmas Eve. Luckily Emma handled the travel and gatherings well. In fact, she seemed to enjoy the extra attention and even warmed up to family members she hadn't seen in a while!

Cake, and pwesents!

With Christmas on its way, we attended several events in our area to celebrate the weeks preceding the holiday. When we explained to Emma that Santa would be visiting soon and asked her what she wanted him to bring, she responded, "Cake, and pwesents!" Since we had also talked about Christmas being Jesus' birthday, this made perfect sense to her! On the first Friday in December, we went on the luminary tour at Dawes Arboretum near our house. After the driving tour, we went inside the visitor's center, where Emma made some crafts, ate cookies, and enjoyed the fire (since we don't have a fireplace at home). The next evening was "Christmas in the Country" at one of our metroparks. A horse-drawn wagon ride (complete with Christmas lights), carolers, and another visit with Santa were the highlights. The next weekend, we visited a Victorian house in town which was decorated with Christmas trees and displays and were treated to another horse-drawn wagon ride. Finally, the Friday before Christmas, our church put on "A Night in Bethlehem," where our fellowship hall was set up to resemble the town and we conducted several hands-on activities, followed by a procession into the sanctuary for a live nativity. Emma got to wear her Halloween costume as a heavenly angel! She and a friend ran up and down the aisle shrieking and laughing. We didn't stop them; weren't the real angels excited when Jesus was born?!

Thanksgiving at Grandma's

Okay, so I'm a little behind schedule...we celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma Karen's (Todd's mom) in Toledo together with my family. As usual, Emma enjoyed everyone's company but was not interested in eating much of the feast (She ate just a couple of muffins before I broke down and fed her chicken nuggets!). The three of us stayed the rest of the weekend and enjoyed a trip to Major Magic's (like Chuck E. Cheese's), the Toledo holiday parade (complete with balloons and Santa), and a visit to "Kris Kringle Village") for a visit and picture with Santa. Emma waited patiently in line, watching the other kids, but when it was her turn, she could only stare at Santa. Santa then asked if she would sit with Mommy if I sat on Santa's lap...and she did! Santa had her look into his magic mirror...if she could see herself, it meant she'd been good. Not only did she see herself, but Mommy saw herself too!