Hair Day

On Boxing Day, we headed to my Aunt Karen's house to celebrate the holiday with them. 

It also became the day that Reese would get her hair cut for the first time.

 

Here it is prior to the cutting.

And here we are.  Aunt Emily with scissors in hand cutting away.  My hands were sweating and I had a bowling ball in my gut but it was time.

13 inches

Here she is getting it all trimmed up.  It is SO much easier to manage now.  She can wear it down without fear of a rats nest that can never be combed out.  She doesn't cry when I brush it either.  It really was time.  Her hair looks so much thicker.

And then I lost ten inches so that I could give it to Locks for Love.

Jessie just hung out with Santa most of the day.

We also had some great food and opened presents while we were there.

Christmas Day 2012

Santa came!

And he ate his cookies!

Here is Christmas #2: gifts from Mimmie, Marcer, Marilyn, and Kathy.

I was awake before Reese so I took some pictures of Girlfriend (the outside cat who now eats inside).

Hooray!

I made Reese a scarf and fingerless gloves.

 

The grocery store pom poms that when she opened she said "Santa knew that you aways said "No!"

Harmonica was a hit!

Aftermath

Bozo Buckets

Aftermath of Christmas #2 - we video chatted with my mom and Marc while we opened presents from them.  It was a great way to feel like we were not so far away from each other.

My cheesy potatoes were almost an hour late because of video chatting with my mom and it didn't even matter. We headed down to the Wazny's for a low-key Christmas.  It was fantastic!  A really great day of no stress, just enjoying each other's company.

Christmas Eve

I love that on Christmas Eve we had a picnic out on the front porch and I didn't wear any shoes.  Only in Arizona.

Here we are ready to go to church at St. Francis Xavier.  It was a beautiful mass geared towards families with all the songs that Reese and I had been singing lately.  We arrived early so Reese and I looked at the nativity and decorations.  She was a practically perfect: quiet or singing.  We really need to work at going to church in 2013.

 

After church we went to celebrate Christmas with family at the Heisner's.  Ella planned the exercise regiment for the kids to run around the backyard (which made bedtime so easy, please carry this tradition on next year).  We had great food, good conversation and fun presents for the kids.  We got the Ella and Jackson an indoor snowball fight which went over like gangbusters. 

 

We headed home and put out cookies and milk for Santa. 

It was hard to believe that we were at this moment already.

Cookie Decorating

My dad and I tackled turbo cookie decorating on Sunday morning.  We invited the Wazny girls down to help and had no idea how fast those girls would be.  My dad and I were in charge of frosting and the girls were in charge of decorating.  Of course, Katherine wanted to make some artistic masterpieces and had big dreams for her cookies.  Charlotte just piled on any decorations that were in front of her.  Reese was happy monitoring what everyone else was doing.  The picture above was the aftermath.

We made the girls wash their hands every time they accidentally ate something or even came close to their mouths.  Charlotte had to wash her hands about fifty times :)

Here is the end result!

 

Amy came down after we were done and we took the big girls outside to ride bikes.  My dad happily took Victoria who was sleeping.

 

Later that day, Reese was coloring and I couldn't resist these self portraits.

The Nutcracker

Reese's peaceful nap before heading downtown to see The Nutcracker.

Lani invited Reese and I (and my dad) to see The Nutcracker put on my the Arizona Ballet Academy at the Orpheum Theater.  It was an inclusive performance which meant that more than half of the performers were special needs.  It was perfect for us, lots of families, tears and laughter.  It was perfect for Reese's first Nutcracker.

I wanted a nice picture but Reese wanted to make this face.

Grampy and Las Noches de las Luminarias

Friday evening my dad flew in to spend the holidays with us.  He was delayed so Reese and I were able to wait for him in the airport.  I love that moment when she first sees him.

From the airport we headed to the Desert Botanical Gardens to meet the Waznys for Las Noches de las Luminarias. 

Even though the Gardens was sold out, it did not feel too crowded or unreasonable.  Reese was so excited to have Grandpa here that she never left his side or arms.  I was able to hold Charlotte's hand and hold Katherine during a music performance which was nice.  Now that I am a mom, I don't get much one on one time with the kids I have watched grow over the past three years. 

Everyone became very sleep pretty fast so we headed home.  I am glad that we were able to go to the Gardens and to bring Grandpa with us.

Winter Party at School

I was able to volunteer to help in Reese's class for their Winter Party!  When I arrived she looked like this!  Apparently they had pink cupcakes for student of the week.

The kids painted frosting onto ice cream cones and then decorated them to look like Christmas trees.

Then marshmallow snow men and a pizza lunch.

Then centers and a sing-a-long with the classroom instruments and some time to run it off outside.

 

It was really good for me to be able to talk with some of the parents.  I don't know if Reese's teacher planned this but two parents other than myself had kids who were adopted, one of out foster care!  I had to go back to work after the party but I am so glad I was able to take those couple of hours to spend with Reese and her classmates.