Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! What wonderful news, that God became man, came into the messiness of our world, in a very messy and humble way, to make it all right again...what a great love. 

We are having a sick Christmas here. We made it to the Christmas Eve service last night, but Emma woke up several times coughing in the night, and just couldn't stop. And Steven said he isn't feeling good either. This morning she opened presents quietly, tired and sick. I'm sure she will be more excited when she feels better. But for now, she has a 102.7 degree fever, has taken medicine, is supposed to be drinking water while watching Veggie Tales. Afterwards I think it will be nap time, as we seem to all have been up in the night. 

We let her open one present on Christmas Eve, which we opened at the station at dinner with Daddy. This picture shows how sick she feels...we didn't get one smile out of her this morning. 

She carried this present around from Aunt Faith. She couldn't wait to open it...It was shoes with a unicorn horn.

Snuggling with Mom after opening presents.

Resting on the couch...new pillow, new PJs, and my fabulous new blanket. Poor sick girl. :( 

Dance Class Christmas Songs

On Thursday, Emma had her last dance class before Christmas. I was glad her teacher didn't cancel this week, partly because last week we all missed because the roads were flooded and we couldn't get there. And since Steven had been running errands (Christmas shopping) in Roseville all day, he even decided to come with us, even though we don't get to watch anymore. (Emma missed him all day.) But it turns out he picked a good day to come. They did 2 Christmas songs/dances for us! He went to the commissary and got back in the middle of their first song...you can tell when he walks in because Emma gets silly, with her tongue out.

School Holiday party

Today (Last Thursday) Emma's class had their Holuday Party. Tomorrow (last Friday)  is Pajama Day, but we will see if I can convince Emma to wear them, she thinks that is silly. They sang sines, and made lots of crafts.

Her letter to Santa. I'm starting to see why she knows all about him.

Here are their songs. Sorry I am just now getting this uploaded. Some songs are from Thursday's party, some are from Pajama day.

White Christmas

Today Emma and I watched White Christmas together. She actually watched the whole thing. She loved all the singing, dancing and pretty dresses. At one point she went upstairs and put a dress and shoes and jewelry on so she could dance pretty, too. :) 

And a side note: Sorry for anyone trying to text me today, my phone just stopped getting texts apparently, because at 9:30 my phone went crazy getting old texts. Ugh. Sorry people, not ignoring you!

Friends

The last few days have been full of friends. Lots of fun with friends at preschool, crazy fun at Ada's birthday party, and a going away dinner for our friends that are leaving. 

Pajama day

Apparently Tristen loves Emma

Decorating/eating cookies at Ada's party

So much sugar and screaming

The girls were playing dress-up, Kosiahtjought he would try the shoes, 

but carried his gun, too, just in case.

 Elise, Emma, and ClaraBeth. (Hopefully I got their names right.)

Christmas baking and cooking shows

Well I think we are FINALLY done with our Christmas baking. I have lost count of how many dozens of cookies we have made, but it's over 10, not including the pfeffernusse. Today we made truffles for Emma's teachers and dog-bone shaped sugar cookies for Ada's party on Sunday.  Two days ago we made our best cookies so far, white chocolate chip, coconut cookies with almond extract, which I added in. They were soft and yummy...and pink. We tried to color the coconut red to be festive, but, as I feared, it just turned it all pink. Oh well, still yummy. Emma is always good helper,  but she just wants to help so much, it is always a good workout for my patience. We have lots of conversations about following directions, washing hands, and why we are doing things a certain way.  But she is way beyond normal 4 year olds...she can crack an egg without getting shell in the batter or making a mess. It's one of her favorite jobs. She also loves to wash dishes. And after watching my food shows with me, she is quite the food critic...although she still has to eat it even if she "didn't like the taste of it." She loves to chant, "get it on the plate!" As we are watching. :) 

We tried to make some of our leftover truffles into snowmen. As they would say on in our shows, it was a good idea, but we did not execute it well.

Her other favorite part is kicking the batter. As she licked these beaters from the Oreo truffles, she said, "I don't like the cream cheese in these, but I do like the chicken." (Ingredients in these are Oreos  and cream cheese.)

Cleaning up sprinkles.

She really wanted to do the 'wet mopping.'

Our pink cookies.

Rough days

You wouldn't think after a hard parenting day like today that I am looking forward to Emma's 3 week holiday break, but I am. We are tired. Just in need of lots of rest, catching up on cleaning, playing, just normal together time without having to do too much or go anywhere. I think we are more than ready. Normally Emma goes to bed pretty easy, but lately she has had a lot of trouble settling down at bedtime. We often hear from her after she has gone to bed. Sometimes it's her tummy, but usually she just "isn't tired." I think tonight may have been one of those nights when she "wasn't tired." This is what I found when I went upstairs to bed:

She was fast asleep, didn't even open her eyes when I carried her up to bed.