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Lila brought this present home from Kindergarten.  I absolutely love it. 

The Sweet Smells of Christmas

It is a good thing I take pictures because I had almost forgotten all of activities that surrounded our holiday. Why it has to be a whirlwind of events that blur together, I don't know. When flipping back through my pictures, I am reminded of some of our sweetest moments. If only we spread these out to span the entire year so that we could fully appreciate the activities and time together.

We kicked the holiday baking off with a M&M snowman cake. The girls did all the decorating and thoroughly enjoyed eating it as well.

Next up was the annual gingerbread house. The girls have strengthened their design skills over the past year and produced a pretty good looking house. Savannah was lucky enough to orchestrate an, "I will decorate the front and the you girls can have the rest," policy. It held up for the most part. I can see that three separate house will be needed in the not so distant future.




The little girls had a chance to create their own gingerbread houses during Adeline's preschool Christmas party. I love the way Miss Lois has them create their own house out of milk cartons glued to a paper plates. Lots of fine motor, crossing mid-line and using hands together are involved in this activity.

Notice the frosting on their lips!

The holiday wouldn't be complete without cranking out hundreds of Christmas cookies. Thankfully, my mom is in town for this portion because I don't have the attention to detail that she has. The favorite cookies to make are the candy canes. I should clarify that. The kid's favorite cookies are the candy canes while the adults fear them because they are hard to twist. We dread them because removing them from the pan takes a steady and patient hand. We celebrate if we break less than we 20.

What surprised us all this year is that Savannah can make a candy cane cookie just as well as my mom. My mom has over 20 years of twisting experience and Savannah's cookies are just as beautiful. The twins and I still have a long way to go in mastering the art of candy cane cookies but we forge ahead regardless of our cookie's aesthetic appeal. I love how it has become a family tradition. It makes the cookies that much sweeter.

When they had had enough, the red dough worked well for Rudolph costumes!

My Jingle Elf

Savannah ran her first adult run this December.  We ran it together which was super fun.  The run was two miles through West Chester and was the opening event for the annual Christmas parade.  Therefore, the streets were lined with hundreds of people cheering us on.  My girl ran her socks off and ended up leaving me behind.  We were the last people to cross the start line and the posted times didn't account for it.  I am guessing at her final time but feel fairly confident that she ran two miles in 17:40!  Not bad for an 8 year old; the fastest 8 year old who ran the race!