Rudolph the white-tailed deer and other holiday happenings

We've been too busy celebrating Christmas for me to blog about what we've been up to, so here are some random pictures to tide you over until the big, massive family visit/Elise's First Christmas post that we all know is yet to come. Enjoy!

We managed to venture to the local Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree this year. By the skin of our teeth, though: not only did a "diaper incident" almost preclude the trip entirely, but we only had enough cash to pay for our white pine because I remembered there's a returning customer discount of $2.00. Upon arriving home, we discovered that the tree looked a lot smaller on the lot. However, we all love it--our Christmas miracle, I suppose.







Our household's first incident of sibling rivalry captured on film: you can see Kalina's hand trying to yank the beads away from Elise, as well as Elise's look of grim determination not to let her. And is that a kick?










Kalina decorating the tree. When asked what her favorite part about Christmas is, she will tell you the Christmas tree (and ornaments). Not quite as good as "Baby Jesus," but better than "PRESENTS!!!"

It snowed! Elise napped through the whole thing, but Kalina actually willingly suited up in her coat, snow pants and boots (even asking for the boots specifically, having been told in the preceding days/weeks that she'd have to wear them if she wanted to play in snow, and refusing to touch them with a 10-foot pole otherwise) and headed out with Daddy. Next thing I knew, every inch of snow from our yard had been rolled into a giant snowman, which is still there three weeks later.

While Kalina and Daddy were playing in the snow, I decided that as long as we were holing up inside, we might as well make Christmas cookies. Fortunately, I had help. Unfortunately, I ended up having to bribe the help to stop decorating, since although the cookies looked great, the sprinkles aren't quite as good of an adornment for the floor. The bribe? A Christmas cookie, of course.


We love our nativity set and we admittedly love letting Kalina play with it. First, she separated the people from the animals. Then, she carefully lined the animals up. Then she not-so-carefully piled the people up. Then she invited all of the animals into the stable, which was eventually inhabited by only the 3 cats. Everyone else got sent to her play kitchen sink. The next morning, the farm animals (but not the camel), as well as Mary, Baby Jesus, and the manger, were allowed back into the living room. All the animals got put down for naps in the stable.

Oh, and Rudolph the white-tailed deer? Just something we talk about every so often. Yes, we're still obsessed with white-tailed deer, and Kalina loves seeing them (and the occasional reindeer) all around town.

P.S. Sorry about the ridiculous formatting. I'm on a new computer and it doesn't seem to work well with blogging. I may have to explore other options.