Santa Pillbug says, "Merry Christmas, everybody!"

(picture by Kate)

The tree

Doug picked out this tree for us. It's a cute little noble fir. This is the first time we've had a noble. I love it! It's a great size for the space we have, too. It fits between the table and the couch without completely blocking the back door.






I decided to go with all white lights this year. We also put a string of colored LED lights across the headboard of Kate's bed, which she is enjoying. Oooh, pretty!

Andy's First Haircut

Kate had her first haircut at four and a half. Obviously we couldn't wait that long for Andy.  Unfortunately he was much less composed about the whole experience.  All my pictures turned out like this:



Poor little guy. He was not happy! Fortunately it didn't take very long.






"Get this thing off me!"



All done. (Whew!)



Back home and smiling again! Doesn't he look handsome?

A Cold and Frosty Morning

Since our one snowfall, it's mostly been raining a lot. We did have one frosty morning, last Friday. Kate and I were admiring the frost while I walked her to school, so as soon as I got home I grabbed my camera and took some pictures.




I used the macro lens, which is kind of tricky. I suppose this sort of thing would really be better with a tripod.






Frost on the edge of a cardboard box.

This is me not stressing.

The painting is, obviously, not done. I haven't even worked on it in a couple of weeks. Sylvia said not to worry about it. (I'd still like to finish it as soon as I can, because I have other things that I want to work on!)

There are quite a few things that I would have liked to do before Christmas, that just didn't happen. I hit a point where I realized that they just weren't going to get done, and decided not to worry about it. Hopefully I'll be able to focus on spending time with my family, and taking care of the things that I can do. (I finally made an appointment for Andy's haircut!)

I'm not doing Christmas cards this year. I couldn't get a good picture, anyway.

We have a cute little tree that's up and decorated. We cleared up all the piles that had accumulated between the kitchen table and the bookshelf, so I can take pictures without an explosion of clutter in the background. (At least, non-Christmas clutter!) Kate and I made cookies and took them to some neighbors and visiting teachees. I have other projects that I will still work on, later. It's okay if they aren't done right now.

"Kate and Mrs. ______ Race through Dragon Tower" (story by Kate)

Kate and I put together this gift for her teacher.  She wrote a story featuring herself and her teacher, and I made it into a book.



I was going to have Kate draw the picture on the cover and I would write the title, but she wrote it herself, in her own inimitable style.



I wrote the title again inside, on the off chance that anyone might find the cover a little hard to decipher. (You know, just in case.)




Kate recently came home with a little stuffed blue whale that she named Alex, so he had to have a part in the story.





Kate says this is an advertisement. I had to leave it in because it's just so Kate.



The sudden introduction of a new character. I asked, "The Queen of Flowers? Is she in the story?" and Kate said, "She's at the end of the story." Of course.

Kate wrote the story in her notebook originally, so we knew how many pages it was.  Then I put the book together and wrote the words, and had her draw the pictures again.



I cut the cover boards from some thin dense cardboard (I believe it came with a package of cardstock, originally).  I covered the boards with paper, glued with PVA and pressed under heavy books to keep them from warping.



I hinged the cover with purple duct tape. Quick and easy! 

When Kate saw the cover she wanted to keep it. I said we'd make her a copy too.



The pages were four sheets of paper stitched together.  (I still have a lot of bookbinding thread left from my class at BYU.)

Here's what it looked like on the back.

After Kate drew the pictures I glued the end papers into the covers and pressed the whole thing overnight, under three big heavy books. 

We wrapped up the book this morning so Kate could take it to her teacher.   Today was Kate's last day of school before Christmas break.  They had pajama day and early dismissal.  It was so cute to see all the kids running around the playground with their pajama pants sticking out under their winter coats.  (Kate and I have matching pajamas, but I figured that would be a bit much for me to walk her to school in my pajamas!)

Crochet Overdress on Kate

I finally got some pics of the crochet overdress on Kate.  (I suppose calling it a vest would be shorter and not inaccurate.)  She wore it to church on Sunday.  I took the camera along and got some quick pictures after the meetings.  (It was raining all day, so I couldn't get any outside.)



When I planned this, I got two dresses from Lands End, a 5T in red and a 6 in teal.  Kate has grown out of the red dress already, but the teal one fits great.  (She was amused by the turtleneck and kept pulling it up over her face and saying "Turtle!")




(Not thrilled about posing, can you tell?)



That thing she's holding is a little plastic cow toy that Becki gave her right before this. She didn't want to put it down.

I wore my red sweater, too, so we were both crocheted!

Here We Come A-Pipe-Chiming

This year's pipe chimes performance! We played at the ward Christmas party, delighting and astonishing all in attendance. Kate played with us for the first time, and did a great job. (Aside from a small mishap in the second verse, from which she managed to recover quickly.)

We also attempted to play "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," but it just didn't come together as well so I won't inflict that one on you.



Kate and Santa!

Nativities R Us

The first weekend in December was the Festival of the Nativity at the church again. We went on Saturday to check it out. (Right after Andy's nap!) I was hoping to get a family picture like last year's but it didn't work out so well.





Kate was not interested in family pictures, but she did want to wear the sheep costume. She makes a cute little lamb.





With all the look-don't-touch nativities on display, it was nice that they also had a room where the kids could actually play with things, along with this cute Little People backdrop. We spent a lot of time in that room.





They used the backdrop that I painted for Savior of the World in the Relief Society room. It's always fun to see that again.