Family friend, Theresa, taught me how to french braid night before last so this was my first solo attempt the following morning (yesterday). I think I did pretty good!
This morning, I undid the braids and Gwen had glorious waves in her hair! Just look at it!
Okay, enough about hair. Here she is modeling her Chicken Feet! After lunch, we hit the slopes again for some sledding fun. You can see a fun slideshow of those pictures below or, if that doesn't work, try here: <click>
This was our 21st Christmas with Michael, 4th Christmas with Gwen and 3rd Christmas with Maddy and the magic really doesn't ever end. The girls were more excited about opening presents than playing with the contents of the package they just opened.
Here's Michael with a little box of money. What could possibly be better than that? Baby Paige (my neice) seems to be oblivious to that green ribbon around her head. Isn't she a little doll! She makes us all smile! Uncle Chris always wondered how the Grinch managed to pull off his dastardly deed. Now he's finally figured it out! We're all feeling a little bit safer tonight! Gwen and Maddy got an insane number of presents but Gwen is most happy to play with Grandad's little basket of kindling. Next year, we'll try to remember to just get her a few dozen sticks! :)
Here's Gwen the very first time she ever touched snow! She loved it and was back out there three more times on Christmas day! I should mention that it was 11 degrees outside this morning!
And here's our little angel, Maddy, making a snow angel the first time she played in snow!
Grandad helps Gwen roll a snowball to make it big enough to build a snowman.
And here's our (VERY FIRST!) snowman -- complete with carrot nose!
Maddy is really looking forward to her next "hair pain" experience. It's been on her mind almost constantly so it's all she talks about. We're visiting Nana and Granddad for Christmas this year and we're flying on an airplane (aka hair-pain) and she's giddy with excitement! I can't help but feel giddy with affection for my little baby girl when I hear her pronounce 'airplane' that way.
Our Garmin (nav system) has an amusing speech problem. She says "Highway hatey-five" instead of "85" and "ex pwee" instead of "expressway" and I swear she sighs in exasperation when I miss my turn and she is forced to recalculate. Anyone else notice this?
Gwen had a bad dream the other night. She described it as a 'bad dream in my brain' and she went on to detail it in choppy terms that we could only half understand so we were constantly repeating things back to her just to make sure we heard the story correctly. It was something about Maddy and runningreally fast and i be afraid then it was something that sounded like "i eet mi lil freend" so we checked in with her to be sure: "You ate your little friend?" And she replied "Yes.... But I'm all better now" Then we laughed hysterically for at least a full minute and she kept asking us what was so funny. Let's just hope we're not relaying this story to a Grand Jury some day.
When I tucked her into her bed at nap time today, Gwen said "I so sorry about your laundry basket, Mommy" (Huh? Is there a problem with my laundry basket?)
Gwen: It only leetle hole Mom: Just a little hole? Gwen: Yes, just this big(holding thumb and forefinger about one inch apart) --- Not this big(holding hands as far apart as her arms would reach). Then she repeated "just this big" (with her thumb and forefinger an inch apart) and then she jabbed her other hand forcefully through that small opening!
Oooooo Kaaaaaay...... I'm off to see if my laundry baskets are still functional!
Temps only in the mid 40's all weekend but the sun is predicted to shine brightly in a clear sky so what better thing to do than hit the ice rink? The girls could have easily spent the entire day doing this even though it's only their fourth time on ice and they're working pretty hard to keep their legs under them. Gosh, they're just so stinkin' adorable! Special thanks to Daddy who thrilled us all with his amazing backward skating technique (essential for holding the camera and catching all this super cute action!).
The video is only a minute and a half long so disregard the dead space at the end of the video. No doubt, it's due to my poor video editing skills! The soundtrack is Mr Sinatra singing about how he's got his love to keep him warm. We whole heartedly agree with his premise but we also have a hard time getting around the appeal of a good pair of fuzzy mittens.
Today, we're off to the uber famous breakfast buffet at Marie Calendars to taunt our eldest daughter with the cheesy goodness of their potato soup. After that, we're heading to our local lake to try to walk off some of those surplus calories then we'll meet up with old friends at another park up north. Hey, anything that doesn't involve going to a mall on the weekend before Christmas is a good thing, right?
Update: Wow! Not sure what the weather man is putting in his eggnog this year but he couldn't have been more wrong about that 0% prediction of rain today and it's been steadily coming down for hours! So much for working off all the yummy Marie Calendar's cheesy soup by taking a brisk walk around the lake. Sigh....
Nothing to do now except lay around the house and chug hot chocolate and gaze at the Christmas tree and scratch our belly. (Ahhhh! That feels good!)
