The Holidays

 From mid-November through mid-December our lives were filled with the preparations for and celebrations of Christmas time.  Annie did a great job singing "Away in the Manger" in her first Christmas Pageant, we celebrated Christmas with Eric's family, we celebrated with Friends, Annie enjoyed a lot of snow play at preschool, and generally we had a wonderful time. Before we knew it, it was time to head to Arizona. Here are just a few pictures from that month:

In front of our tree, the night before we headed to Arizona.

Annie after waking Dad and Siri up on St. Lucia Day. It was our first year of this tradition, and she loved it. We didn't do the traditional  St. Lucia song, but a Swedish classmate has promised to help her learn it for next year.

Siri was excited to be woken by Annie, and to pose for pictures, too. She likes to do whatever  Annie is doing. We hear "My turn! My turn!" quite often.

The girls loved extra playtime with our friend Ella, as her mom was on maternity leave.
They also loved helping to take care of baby Jack.

The girls were quite excited about all the snow that fell in December, and are getting quite skilled and the whole bundling up process, though Siri likes to remind us that she is also very good at taking things off.

They both have cultivated their "cheese" face (or "cheeseburger" as we often say) for pictures. Unfortunately, this often means we don't see their beautiful eyes in pictures, but we still think they're pretty cute!


Besides play with friends at and around home, we also filled our days with holiday fun. We baked cookies, planned/made/wrapped gifts, visited Santaland, went to the Holidazzle Parade, and have several visits with Santa.