Christmas Eve and Day

The girls helped decorate cookies for Santa before bed time and we wrote Santa a short note on the plate we placed them on. There was a lot of excitement and a little sadness. Elizabeth knew that Arnie (our elf) would be gone in the morning..

As expected Santa made a stop at our house that night. He ate a few bites of the cookies (leaving a heart behind, do you see it?) and drank a little eggnog. He left the girls their Santa 'n Me plate complete with the addition of his hand print. The reindeer ate the reindeer food we left out for them in the bowls we made at the Santa 'n me event at Art Space Studio. Arnie (our elf) returned home to the North Pole until next December. It was a busy night. The empty tree became buried behind a pile of packages.

When the girls woke up Christmas morning the first thing they did was checked to see if the reindeer had ate the food they left out. Then they checked to see if Santa ate the cookies they had left for him. Elizabeth declared that Santa didn't eat all of the cookies (could she have them?) or drink all of his eggnog. Then Elizabeth went running to see if maybe, just maybe, Arnie had decided to stay. Much to her dismay he was gone. They finally checked out what Santa had left under the tree. I don't think they were too sure about where to even begin.

The girls had a great time with all of the gifts. Katherine still has not quite figured out opening gifts yet. I think that Dennis and I ended up opening most of hers. She just wanted to play with the items after they were opened. I'm sure that next year will be a completely different story. They spent most of they day playing with the new toys that they received. It was a lot of fun. You can find additional pictures here.

Dennis' parents joined us for a little video conferencing a little later in the morning. The girls enjoyed seeing them. We'd hoped to catch up with other family via video conferencing a little later on, but didn't get that opportunity. Hopefully, we'll coordinate that better next year.

It's Snowing!

Okay, not really.....I do wish it were though. I've been wishing, praying and dreaming of snow since the weather here turned bitter cold early this fall. I thought for sure that would mean the Carolina's would certainly be getting snow. Thus far the cold hasn't meant that at all. We've even had days back up in the upper 70's. I know there are a few of you out there that think that would be nice about now and I'd gladly trade you if I could have some white fluffy form of water.

You might wonder why I specifically mentioned it as a form of H2O. Well, it seems that my girls have wonderful creative imaginations. A couple of weeks ago, I heard Elizabeth hollering, "It's snowing! It's snowing!" Like the silly person I am, I looked out the window. After all it was only 74 degrees that day when we'd mailed Christmas packages. I went into the family room to find Elizabeth and Katherine sitting in a pile of shredded white tissue paper. Elizabeth was tossing it up towards the ceiling and calling it snow. They giggled and laughed and made a few snow angels before I asked them to help me clean it up. They tracked a trail of it from the family room to the trash can in the kitchen. God answered my selfish little prayer, just not exactly how I'd imagine He might. It was a lot of fun. I certainly can say it snowed in our family room this year and we had fun playing in the snow.

Preschool Christmas Program

Elizabeth has been so excited about this year's preschool Christmas program. She has been practicing her songs. I couldn't quite figure out when she sang Happy Birthday to Poppa Royal why she sang "Happy Happy Birthday" in the middle of the song, but I now know why. That's how they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus in their Christmas program.

She did such a wonderful job. It was night and day from last year. Last year she spent much of the time on stage trying to hide behind the child next to her and eventually ended up sitting on Mrs. Amy's lap. This year she was completely into singing and the arm movements. She's growing into such a big girl right before our eyes. It has been absolutely amazing to see the transformation of her.

I had expected that one of us would be walking in the lobby with Katherine, but she was completely mesmerized by the kids on stage. She sat happily on my lap rocking out and clapping with the songs. I'm certain that she'll be quite the ham next year when she gets her first opportunity to be on stage. She loves to sing and dance.

You can find additional pictures and another video clip here.

Happy Holidays!

This is the first year that our Holiday letter will be online! If you've been following our blog all year some of the highlights here might sound familiar.

This year has flown by for us. It's hard to believe that we've now been in North Carolina for 6 years. This fall has been especially cold so we are hoping to see a good snow at some point. We (okay, I) definitely miss the snow! I'm certain my neigbhors think I'm crazy to volunteer to shovel their driveways if and when it snows.

Elizabeth (now 4 1/2 years-old) is in preschool 3 days a week at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church(GSUMC). She loves going to school. Her favorite part of the week is show-and-tell. It is so hard for her to actually put her item in the box at the beginning of the day. She wants to tell everyone about it first thing. I've been amazed at how she loves to work on her writing homework. She's still going to speech therapy twice a week, but she's making good progress. Elizabeth is still our little tomboy. She loves cars and planes....and boys! I never knew the boy craziness started so young. I suppose I should have known better about that, too. I can hardly believe that she will be starting kindergarden next year. When drive by the new school being built down the street, Elizabeth proudly declares, "That's MY new school!" It will be the school that she attends next year.

Katherine is growing up way to fast. I can hardly believe that her second birthday is just around the corner. She's been talking non stop for as long as we can remember. She is a complete girly girl. She loves to play Mommy to her babies and little puppy dog. It's the cutest thing to see her tuck her puppy under her arm at night time. She also loves to take him everywhere. She stuffs him into a little purse and slides the purse onto her arm. She is completely ready to start school and some days it's hard to get her to leave Elizabeth's classroom. She'll go to preschool at Good Shepherd 3 days a week next fall. Elizabeth really enjoys terrorizing her and I don't think that Elizabeth has realized yet that she's going to get her paybacks one day.

This summer's fun included a visit from Mary & Royal. We headed to Topsail Beach for a great time. Katherine was absolutely fearless when it came to the water. Dennis brother, Tim, had two weeks leave from Iraq and we got to visit with their family as well. It was great to see everyone. Nandy, our Nanday Conure, passed away this summer. That was not an easy thing to explain to the girls. Elizabeth still mentions him every once in a while. Both of the girls loved going to the pool this year. Elizabeth suprised us by starting to swim. We'll most likely sign her up for lessons next summer. Katherine and I made a trip to Chicago to visit with family. My Dad and his family drove out to Chicago from California and we spent a lot of time sight seeing together. It was great to see so many family members. The kids missed seeing Elizabeth, but had a lot of fun with Katherine. It was a summer filled with family/friends, and wonderful memories. (Summer Blogs)

My Mom came out this fall and we did plenty of running around. We went on Elizabeth's school field trip to Black's Peaches and Farm (pumpkin patch), where we tried to stay dry, and attended one of Elizabeth's friends birthday party at the Bank of America stadium (where the Carolina Panthers play). Elizabeth is all about football! I was baptized at GSUMC while she was here. That has been something that I've been wanting to do for some time now. The girls really enjoyed her visit. We've had plenty of fun with the season change. The girls have really enjoyed watching the leaves turn colors and fall. We learned that Mary (Dennis' Mom) was diagnosed with breast cancer. They caught it early and we are very thankful for that. Dennis made a trip back to Oregon to surprise his Mom. It has been a very busy fall (Fall Blogs).

This year we started ,what I hope will be, a new Holiday tradition. We took the girls to ride the Polar Express ride on Great Smokey Mountains Railroad (We believe Blog). The only thing missing was snow. The girls had a great time even though they only napped for an hour on the drive up to Bryson City.

I've included links to various photo albums that go with the events I've hightlighted in this update. There may be a few blog entries to go along with them, too. We hope that all is well with all of you and your family during this Christmas season. You are all are near in our thoughts and prayers. May the spirit of this beautiful and blessed season be with you now and throughout the new year.

Love,
Dennis, Marla, Elizabeth & Katherine

Elf On The Shelf Arrives

To all of those who may not be familiar with the Elf on the Shelf see this link.

Elizabeth named our Elf Arnie last year. She wasn't into him last year until after he was gone. She looked for him and asked about him nonstop for several months. We have a little mail box just inside of her bedroom door and I told her if she was really good, maybe Arnie would send her a letter from the North Pole. She was good and was completely tickled to receive several short letters from Arnie. He told her how much he missed her.

So, this year she was so excited about his return to our house. Every morning she runs downstairs to see if she can find him. On a few occasions I (we) have forgotten to move him and that was very upsetting to her. I've told her that he told me that he likes that spot or more recently that because I was up late getting packages ready to mail he didn't get a chance to visit the North Pole that night. She seemed fine with those explanations, but a little disappointed that he was so easy to find.

Katherine hasn't quite figured out Arnies role in the Christmas season yet. She does squeal with delight and chase after Elizabeth searching for him and calling his name, but doesn't talk about him much more than that. I'm certain that she'll be more excited about him next year.

Recently, we went to a friends house and they have an elf named T that comes to visit. Tyler was considering touching him and Elizabeth was great at standing in front of him and telling him that he's not suppose to touch him, as she hollered for us. That was followed by a reminder from Tyler's Mommy that the reason why we can't touch him is because he'll lose his magic. It was neat to see that Elizabeth's been paying attention and was so concerned about her friends elf.

I've been trying to remember to snap a picture of the various places where Arnie has hung out this year, so we can revisit his stay long after he's gone home to the North Pole (Link to pictures).

Thanksgiving Luncheon

Elizabeth had her Thanksgiving Luncheon at school on November 19th. It was just the 4 year-old classes. Katherine was so excited. She was one crazy girl. She ran all over the multi-purpose room while we were setting up. Then when the 4's classes started coming in she stopped and looked for familiar faces. The kids were adorable in their little Pilgrim hats and Indian head bands. We sat down and waited to say grace. By the time it was time to eat, Katherine was so excited that everyone was there she couldn't sit still. I think I spent the majority of the time chasing after her. Finally, one of Elizabeth's teachers held on to her so that I could eat more than two bites. We had fun sitting with our friends from other classes.