Maddie James is One!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

...CHRISTMAS OUTFITS! Somehow we managed to take not one single picture of Madelyn in her adorable little Christmas dress, so you will have to settle for a Christmas sweater (with matching head gear).




The dogs were also quite tolerant of their Christmas head gear.


Jillson in her Christmas dress and boots. For all you other children of my era, yes, those are scrunched suede "leather" boots with bows on the side. Long live the 80s!


Jillson's dramatic debut in our church's pageant. (Sorry about the out of focus pictures.) For some reason the angels in our pageant carry "wands" i.e. twinkling stars on the end of sticks, which are just a disaster waiting to happen. One little angel kept eating her star, another kept hitting the bigger angels behind her with it, etc. My little angel decided to see if the skinny end of the stick would fit up her nostril. It did. And in the other nostril, too.



Christmas morning left Jills standing in awe in front of the filled stockings. Santa came and filled them with wondrous things like sparkly chapstick, nail polish, and sun glasses. And, of course, the ubiquitous Christmas Cheetos.


Kansas got a good dumping of snow on Christmas Eve, which meant we woke up to a truly white Christmas.



Santa left a present under the tree for each of the girls (the rest are from family and friends).



A favorite stocking stuffer...


A favorite with the one-year-old set. Dance along with Barney. This was a hand me down toy from friends of ours here in Kansas. We thought Jillson would love it (she does) but we didn't predict how much Maddie would enjoy it. She does dance along.


A third installment of photos to come later.

And May All Your Christmases Be...

...WHITE! We are featuring perfectly seasonal snow. Let me see if I can get some Christmas highlights up here.

Here's the picture from our Christmas Card:


"Starter Snow" from early December:





Making sugar cookies from scratch. Jillson's first experience using cookie cutters on something other than play dough. Also her first time sprinkling on the colored sugar. She loved making them. She did not like eating them.




Christmas card assembly area.


Wouldn't be Christmas without a seasonal beer sampler.


Kiki brought a project for Jillson, and it went off famously. We made suet cakes out of peanut butter, crisco, birdseed, raisins, and corn meal, and hung them in suet baskets in the backyard. We've been enjoying watching purple finches, juncos, and cardinals ever since. I didn't realize we had such a great bird-watching house. Thanks, Keeks!



Last minute ornament making:


More pictures soon to come...