Merry Christmas!

From Hannah and I with love, Merry Christmas!

Bobble Chippey–What Are You Doing?

It’s safe to say that our cute little elf became much more mischievous as the month went along!  He started off pretty calm but I think he chatted with some of his elf friends while visiting the North Pole each evening because his antics became more interesting…and fun!  I love each morning when Hannah wakes up and says with excitement, ‘Mommy, Come on!  Let’s go find Bobble Chippey!’  She hops out of bed and together we go to find his latest hiding spot.  Sometimes we have to look a bit and other times he’s in plain sight.  Here are some of the fun places Hannah found her friend Bobble Chippey this month.

Playing with Hannah’s Christmas balloon

Around this time Hannah also realized that Bobble Chippey could be her own personal messenger to Santa.  Heh!  She figured this out all on her own and this day she whispered in his ear something she would like for Christmas.  Smart little sweetie!

This marked the day that Bobble Chippey began to be a little more impish upon his return from the North Pole.  This morning he was caught red handed checking out Hannah’s Christmas candy that was left from her Christmas breakfast.

Playing with Santa Goofy on the stairs.  Wheee!

Enjoying a marshmallow bubble bath

Brushing his teeth the morning after her trip to the dentist.

Reading the Christmas story.

Last week Bobble Chippey heard Hannah talking about having a pj day at daycare.  He wanted to be part of it too!

On this night he talked all of Hannah’s ‘fwiends’ into sitting together at the foot of the bed.  Hmmm…looking at this it’s no wonder there are some nights that I’m not sure where I’ll fit in our bed!

Now I’ve saved Bobble Chippey’s most mischievous antics for the end.  Here’s some of the stuff our little elf got into!  He wrote on our family picture using a dry erase marker.

On this night he ‘decorated’ the Christmas tree with her unmentionables!

This was Hannah’s reaction.

Last night Bobble Chippey was a monkey once again!

As tonight is Christmas Eve Bobble Chippey will help Santa out with his gift deliveries and then make one final appearance tomorrow morning before returning to the North Pole to play with the other elves until next Christmas.  I’m sure all antics will be put aside tomorrow morning when Bobble Chippey reflects to Hannah that Christmas day is the day we celebrate Jesus’ birthday and the day He was sent to earth to be our Saviour.  Tomorrow we’ll begin our day remembering that and celebrating Jesus’ birthday!

Oh Snow Cute!

Last week Hannah and I went to Auntie Deb and Uncle Scott’s for our annual Christmas dinner.  This year we were excited when Uncle Scott could spend the entire evening with us!  Hannah wore an adorable little outfit purchased when we were in FL last month.  I realized when we got home that I had purchased 4 different dresses/outfits at 3 different stores that were all by the same designer, Rare Editions.  The top of this fun little snowman outfit was a bit long but she still looked adorable.  Hannah wears a size 5 pants for the length but size 4 fits her in tops. 

Hannah can stand still for only so long before she has to jump and leap and shout!

Snowman photo shoot fun VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I think this outfit captures Hannah’s outgoing personality perfectly!  I sure hope it still fits her next year!

How on Earth Did God’s Baby Sleep?

Hannah’s preschool Christmas concert was last night.  I’ll write more later but couldn’t wait to share this video of my little performer with you!  I’ve watched it no less than 20 times and still find myself with tears of laughter in my eyes half the time!  Enjoy!!!

The words to the song are:

The Angels sing…la, la, la

The Shepherd laughs…ha, ha, ha

The donkey brays….hee-haw

The crows all caw, caw, caw

Moo lows the cow

Baa baa says the sheep

Mary smiles and Joseph leaps

How on earth can God’s baby sleep?

An Evening of Gingerbread Fun!

Last Christmas Hannah and I decorated her first gingerbread house.  Norma was there with 2 of her grandchildren and we immediately knew that a new tradition had been born.

This year we booked our evening more than a month ago and happily doubled the size of our group.  Here are our little chefs!  (It was fun to see how they’d changed in just one short year.  Last year it was the adults who put names on their chef’s hats and this year they were all able to do it themselves.  Such talented little chefs!)

Chef Hannah contemplating her design before we began.  (Or, dreaming of how many candies she would enjoy while making her house!)

Hannah’s cousin Chef Makenna joined us for her first but not last gingerbread creation

Chef Katelyn who was returning with her brother for our 2nd year of gingerbread excitement!

Chef Nathan who was designing an awesome house!

And our final 2 new chefs were the adorable Chef Alyssa and

Chef Maddie

We also brought along the too cute for words Junior Chef Kallen!  He wasn’t too interested this year but next year – look out!!  I love how my sweet little nephew chose the perfect outfit to wear for our festive evening.

It’s fun to see how different each house is in spite of all having same decorations to work with. 

This year we also brought along more parents too so we all shared great family times together!

When we sat there sharing this awesome family time together I couldn’t help but get a little teary at one point.  Who knew when Norma and I first met at work 25 years ago when she and her hubby had 2 daughters, that 25 years later our families would dovetail together like this and be sharing such wonderful memory making times together!  Over my career I’ve worked with hundreds of people but Norma and I share a friendship that has only grown over the years and I will never, ever forget how our friendship grew to it’s deepest level on a beautiful sunny day in Hunan, China on Nov 2, 2009.

As is normal when creating gingerbread houses there was lots of sampling to be done by young and ummm…not as young alike!

Eventually Hannah could be found eating the icing right out of the bag.  Hehe!

You can tell by this pic of my camera that Hannah was not the only one with sticky fingers!

Hannah’s finished masterpiece!  I think it’s beautiful and she did a great job!

Our sugared up little chefs with their finished masterpieces!

We’re already said that we’ll do this together again next year!  Lots of fun and the best part is we leave the mess at the store!  Woo hoo!