i'm dreaming of a white christmas!

 

I'm pretty sure there will still be some snow on the ground by Christmas. We got snow overnight (our first "real" storm) and I think it'll be cold enough for the next 10 days that it won't all melt. The girls had so much fun today playing in the snow, and then took a 2 hour nap! A Christmas miracle! 

 

To get in the Christmas spirit (it didn't take much, I was itching to go before Thanksgiving), we've been listening to Christmas music every chance we get, making a gingerbread village, buying presents, decorating the tree, house and cookies, and writing letters to Santa, and last night as the snow was starting, we drove around looking at Christmas lights.

 

Avery turned 6! It's truly been a magical age--the bickering and icky behavior of the 5 year old seems to have left and has been replaced by a helpful and respectful little girl. Couldn't be more proud :)

 One of her presents was ear buds that she can use when she's on the computer. So grown up :)

 

Working backwards, we hosted Thanksgiving here and it was the smoothest turkey day to date! We made a couple of dishes the day before and it made the day of so much easier. I think we were done with cooking and preparing by 11am! We were able to relax, eat, drink and enjoy the rest of the day.

 Avery also got a "how to draw" book for her birthday. Her first picture was of a queen. She loves to draw and this book has been wonderful! Side note: we had no idea that Nola could draw (we had really only seen her head with two legs representation of people before, but it turns out that she has an incredible talent for copying artwork-pictures to come)

The girls have also been to some birthday parties, a cookie decorating party, we've started our Harry Potter movie night marathon, Avery was sick last weekend, I got sick this week and now all of us girls have super stuffy nose, I had my first (and second, and third) observation at work and happily my principal seems to think I'm good at my job (whew), we saw Frozen last weekend (so good!) and have pretty much been trying to soak in all the winter and holiday goodness we can. I have to admit though, this week can't go by fast enough so we can slow things down and enjoy the extra long winter vacation.