We need our papa!

Last year we were in GA for Christmas and were able to get our pictures taken with Santa -- mind you the Santa in the picture was Ryan's dad, aka Papa who is a professional Santa Claus. This year we won't be getting down to GA for Christmas :( so we had to settle for another Santa. I thought Aubrey would do just fine sitting on Santa's lap because she's used to Papa's white beard, but boy was I wrong (at least she didn't scream like the kid in front of us). I guess there's just no replacing the real thing...we love you Papa! Needless to say, Eva, our happy-go-lucky child, smiled the entire time! Aubrey is our little drama queen, but definitely keeps things interesting :)! We're excited for our trek out to BV (that's Buena Vista, VA folks), but will definitely miss getting to see Papa, GG, Aunt Kiki, and Uncle Bubba. We love you guys!


P.S. Thanks for the cute dresses GG, the girls looked adorable!

TIS THE SEASON...

FOR HOMEMADE COOKIES...
Aubrey sat on the counter and helped mommy make the dough every step of the way. I wish you could have seen her with the egg. She insisted on doing it all herself and then just squeezed the egg in her two hands until it broke. Mommy's job was to remove all the eggshells :)!


(I turned my back for 3 seconds, 3 SECONDS, and this is what I find -- teeth marks in our cookie dough. Those darn cookie dough fairies must be back ;). In case anyone was wondering, those holes were not picked out with fingers. Aubrey actually put her face up to the dough and took bites. What a goober! She gets it all from her daddy -- love you sweetie!




SPOONS ON NOSES...
Oh, come on, I know this is a Christmas tradition in most of your homes. Ok, so maybe not, and technically it isn't in our home either. However, we often worry as parents if we are teaching our kids what is important, and if they will grow up to be stalwart young men and women. It is times like these that I realize...yeah, I'm teaching them what they need to know ;). If nothing else, it was quality family time (Eva did have a little help, but Aubrey managed all on her own).





AND A CHRISTMAS TREE...
Disclaimer: The battery in our camera died as I went to take a picture of the tree up and decorated. Maybe we'll post one up later, but don't count on it the way my days have been the past week or so.

Daddy's job was to pick out the tree while mommy ran around after Aubrey through a maze of trees. Who knew there were so many different TYPES of Christmas trees! We finally settled on one (with a little help from the boy scouts selling them).


And of coarse we loaded it on top of our gas saving micro machine of a car...gotta love it! And we do, but I dream of the day when we get a bigger car!


In case we don't get the chance to post again before Christmas...MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! We hope you enjoy your holiday season with family and friends, and don't forget the reason behind all the celebrating and the greatest gift of all! We love you!