Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner was celebrated in our home. We were very excited to have everyone over for Christmas. We had a very yummy dinner with more family.

The trees I made for our table.



The boys enjoying the appetizers.



The spread: prime rib roast with an jus, roasted veggies, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, and a salad. So yummy!



The aunts.



It was a great Christmas, Baby Bear was spoiled and received so many presents. She got ballet slippers from Grandpa Bear. She loved those, her aunt got her a ballet leotard to go with it and that was the one thing to get the princess dress off for a little while. What a great Christmas! We are so lucky to have so much family near by.

Christmas breakfast

After opening presents from Santa, we went to Grandma Bear's house for Christmas breakfast. A friend was staying at grandma's house, so it was especially fun. (note the princess dress is still on)



They had plenty of fun together.

Christmas morning - Santa was here

We got home from Christmas Eve just before midnight, in time for Baby Bear to go to bed before Santa showed up. When Baby Bear woke up, we noticed that the cookies we set out had been nibble on and the milk was gone.



Baby Bear asked Sant for a purple present and sure enough, there was a purple present. Baby Bear was excited to open her purple present.



What she found when she opened the purple present was a Belle doll along with a matching dress. Baby Bear right away stripped her pajamas off to put on her princess dress.



I think that Santa did pretty well. She did not take that dress off. She loved playing with her Belle doll.





Mama Bear got a Big surprise from daddy, an iPad 2. You can see daddy playing with mommy's gIft in the background.



What a great morning. We must have been good this year, Baby Bear was very spring by Santa. In addition to her princess doll and dress, she also got two towels, some videos, and a Boots (from Dora the Explorer) stuff doll.

Christmas Eve 2011

We celebrated Christmas Eve with my side of the family. My Lola, Baby Bear's great-Lola, was in the hospital earlier in the week and so we had a change in location. It was a nice time with family.

Having fun with her cousin.



Uncle Mike, daddy, and Mama Bear's cousin.



With Uncle Mike.



The family.

Random December

Some photos from December



Celebrating a friend's birthday at John's Incredible Pizza.







Just being silly and having fun at home.

Happy holidays to all!

Hope that everyone has a Happy Holidays!

Preschool celebrating and giving

Mama Bear has been busy this week, which is why I have been so behind in blogging. In my attempts to be a super mom, I decided to be crafty and put together some gifts for Baby Bear's preschool teachers and her classmates. They had a holiday party on the last day before the holiday break, a fun way to celebrate with her friends.



I made these cards for her teachers and packaged it along with a coffee cup and some treats (I forgot to get a picture of the final product).





They really liked it and liked the way it was packaged, I am so glad. Baby Bear was very excited and wanted to pass the gifts out to each teacher herself. I thought that was really sweet that she gave the gifts to her teachers rather than handing them out myself.

For her class mates, I made these little cards that they could color along with a few crayons. Here is a pictue of the inside of the card.



I knew that I didn't want to give a bunch of two-year olds candy. I figured parents would appreciate that I did not do that. I knew that I didn't want Baby Bear to get candy. The front of the card had another snowman and the back of the card had some penguins. A few kids, wanted to color right away. They were a success!

For the holiday party, I signed up top bring some cupcakes. So I made some yummy cupcakes.



Baby Bear saw the cupcakes that I made in the morning and I told her what they were for. When I got to school, she wanted to make sure that I didn't forget the cupcakes.



She enjoyed those cupcakes very much. The cupcakes were a hit.

Christmas cat

Chase Monster loves our Christmas tree too. I brought Chase home 15 years ago in December. He has always loved Christmas trees. My sweet kitty is my Christmas cat.

Counting down to Christmas: Advent Calendar

On December 1st we began our advent calendar. I was inspired by Martha Stewart and made a stocking advent calendar. Each day Baby Bear gets a stocking with a treat or small gift. On Christmas, she will get her big stocking.





Every day, Baby Bear asks for a "kitten." For some reason, she calls the stocking kittens. I think she means mittens like the mitten in the book Goodnight Moon that are hung by clothes pins, which is how I have hung up the stockings. It is the only connection that I can figure out. We have enjoyed counting the days and getting a stocking each day. It is fun way to count down to Christmas.

Getting ready for Christmas

A few weeks ago, we were on our way home. Baby Bear saw the Christmas lights on other homes and said "look there's Christmas." When we parked in front of our home, she said "there's no Christmas at our house." Well, the next day daddy headed over to Lowe's and put up Christmas lights. That was the beginning of Christmas at our house. The next day, we went to Home Depot and picked up a Christmas tree. We decorated the tree. Baby Bear loves her tree. Each night she says good night to the tree and she likes to talk to the Disney ornaments on the tree. Snow White is her favorite.

Here is our tree just freshly decorated. We hadn't put up our star quite yet.



Here she is being silly and running.



After Baby Bear went to bed, I put up more decorations.





When Baby Bear got up the next day, she walked around the house and pointed to all the "Christmas." It is such a fun time of year. Baby Bear understands more about things this year, she gets Santa and that she understands the idea of presents. She is really enjoying it all.

We are really enjoying the decorations and celebrating this wonderful season and the spirit of giving and goodwill.

Santa 2011

Today we went to visit Santa. Baby Bear had been talking about Santa a lot and so I asked her if she wanted to see Santa. She was really excited about it and talked about him the whole drive to the mall. I was worried that there would be a huge line or that he would be taking a lunch break to feed the reindeers since we got there just before noon. We got there and the door was closed with no line. Oh no! But he was there, the door was closed because of the crazy Santa Ana winds we have been experiencing. So we were first in line to see the big guy.

She was quite excited to see him, until she actually saw him.



Baby Bear has come a long way since last year. There were no tears. But she wasn't totally thrilled. I was holding her hand in this one (they cut me out but you can see parts of my fingers).



I had to step in for the last one.



Santa asked Baby Bear if she wanted to a doll for Christmas and she nodded. She was very quiet and didn't say a word through the entire visit. As we were leaving, she did say one thing to Santa, "Thank you." Such a sweet girl. I love her. All in all a very successful visit with Santa!

More baking

Baby Bear really liked baking the other day. The other morning before school, she asked for her apron and a banana to. Well, it was a perfectly good banana that I did not want to waste. Instead I gave her some flour and water to stir. We will have to try baking muffins again very soon.

Potty training

We have been trying to work on potty traininig. Baby Bear is showing a lot more interest. At school and daycare, she has been sitting on the potty. We encourage her at home. She did go pee at daycare last week and so we are really excited. She is interested in it, so that is a huge step. In fact, she is training her doll, Baby Stella to go potty.

Baby Bear's personal style

Baby Bear is adamant about what she does and does not wear. She has her own style and she only wants to wear certain things. I have learned to let go in most cases and to let her to develop her individual style. Most days I am just happy to get her out the door in something other than her pajamas. She does not like to wear sweaters or socks (even when it is freezing outside). Every morning, I try. I should just give up but what kind of mom would I be without trying to put a sweater on her as we walk out the door.

Her princess style. We were going to a birthday party and this is what she chose to wear. I talked her out of the heels before we left.





Pajamas with a tutu and a hat



She really likes her tutu. Here she is with her red snowflake tights and her tutu and a magic wand (aka a pink swirly straw)





Then there are days she just wants to wear her footsie pajamas. Hey even I would choose that on cold days.