Christmas

We did our typical Christmas routine, Christmas Eve at the Sarion house and Christmas Day and the Knowles house.  The girls had a great time opening and giving presents.  I think these are a bit out of order, but I don't have the patience to move them around so it will just have to do!

Christmas Day at the Knowles

Grandma, Grandpa and the grandkids.  I can't get over how quickly they are all growing.

My girls and Aunt Jenny!

PJ twins!

It just wouldn't be a family gathering without some serious story telling.  All these kids love reading and books and it is such a great activity when they need a little down time.

Helping Grandpa and Grandma open their gifts.  

Cousins by the Christmas Tree!

The Jones, waiting for present opening.

My big 6 year old!

Presents!

Christmas Morning at our house.

Santa was kind enough to bring Laurel the only thing she really wanted for Christmas - The Pet Shop Airplane.  We don't need to talk about how long it took to put it together.

And Maya got her Santa wish - a walking, talking unicorn.

My favorite gift - they each got shark blankets!

Present opening

Good morning!

Christmas Eve at the Sarion household.

Daddy and Laurel snuggles

Daddy and Maya snuggles

Present opening.

This one is a bit random, but Laurel got to have a PJ party for school and decided to make it extra festive by wearing her reindeer antlers and snow boots!  

Christmas Cookies

Unfortunately, we missed the annual Knowles christmas cookie baking festivities this year. Poor Laurel came down with a stomach bug the night before that continued for the next two days so we were all housebound until she recovered.  Lucky for us, the rest of the bakers set aside a great selection of cookies for us so we still thoroughly enjoyed and gifted many, many cookies!

Once Laurel was healthy, we did a little baking on our own.  Not quite the same as doing it with everyone else, but we sure made some tasty ones!

The Many Faces Of Laurel

These pictures are from our Seabrook trip, but I absolutely love them because they show SO much of Laurel's personality.  I wish I was closer and had a better camera then my iPhone so I could zoom in on her better.  I asked for a picture and this is what she gave me ;-)

Seabrook

We took what is turning into an annual December trip to Seabrook.  We ran into some crazy weather this time around, but the rain held just long enough for us to enjoy a bit of time outside.  The power went out a few times and most of the weekend was spent with some quality family time.  We played lots of games, spent time at the pool, read books, watched movies by the fire and put together lots of legos.  We love this place, it is low key and allows for some relaxing family time.  We always come back refreshed!

The rain disappeared long enough for us to take a nice hike down to the beach. We followed the gnome trail and kept our eyes open for gnomes... unfortunately the gnomes kept themselves hidden but we did run into many of their homes!

We found our way down at the beach.  The water was higher than it has ever been on our visits and we weren't able to stay too long as the waves were very unpredictable and we often found ourselves running as fast as we could so they didn't drench us... boots and all!

Legos, wine and a fire.  A dream weekend, in my opinion!

The town had a Santa breakfast on Sunday before we left.  The girls had a great time painting ornaments, eating breakfast and looking at Santa from a distance.  Neither of them have ever been willing to actually go up and talk to Santa at any point in their lives!  We also got to watch a play put on my all the local kids the evening before, it was a fun version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

(This was as close as she would get!)

And what better to do on a rainy day then jump in puddles!!

Our Christmas Tree Story

While shopping at Costco one weekend we noticed a giant sign advertising Christmas trees for $30.  Wow, we thought.  What a great deal!  Why don't we get our tree there this year and save ourselves $20.  So, we piled in the car the next weekend and headed back.  It was pouring down rain, but, who cares, we won't have to tromp through the mud and rain to find a tree we will just pick one up from their nice lot.

We headed into the store, paid for our tree and they directed us to the parking lot across the street.  As soon as we arrived, we realized it was not exactly what we had pictured.

There was a giant semi truck where trees were being unloaded as we watched.  The trees were all wrapped up... and laying on the ground.  They were not nicely displayed where we could walk around and pick out the one we liked best.  They were lying in the puddles on the cement parking lot.  The girls decided not to even get out of the car, and I don't blame them.  It was still raining and there was nothing to even look at except a semi and caution tape.  Rey and I ventured out... how do you determine which wrapped tree is the best?  Who knows, we opted to pick one with the flattest cut at the trunk.  Made sense to me, flatter seems that it would be easiest to put in the tree stand.

We quickly discover that there is no assistance to get the tree tied on your car, it is all up to you.  So, we attempt to get it on top and tie it down... in the pouring rain... with no real idea on how to do it.  It is heavy and we are struggling to get it centered.  I opened the door to the car and Laurel is crying.  I figured out that she didn't realize the tree was wrapped and thought we were picking out a small one so no ornaments would fit on it.  Got her settled down.  Finish tying the tree on top and cross our fingers it stays during the ride home.  Maya was kind enough to volunteer to watch the trunk through the sunroof for us because "if I can't see the trunk any more that means the tree fell off."  Thanks for the help!

We made it home and unwrapped the tree and luckily it looks OK.  Next year, however, we will go back to our regular nursery, pick out the perfect tree before it is wrapped and then head into the warm building for hot chocolate and fresh baked cookies while the kind gentlemen tie the tree to the top of our car.  I have learned that all that is worth $20 to me :-)

Here is a picture to capture the scene.

My perfectionist

Her attention to detail can sometimes shock me.  It can also have some very frustrating moments as it leads to a high level of perfectionism.  We've been having a lot of conversations about how things should never be "perfect," especially art.  That it is OK if there are little mistakes or that things don't look exactly like you want.  That is what makes them really special and unique to you.

She asked me to spell her words as she was writing and then proceeded to alternate red and green letters... notice it also alternates which color each line begins with.  Luckily we didn't have any color mixups partway through or the melt down would have been pretty epic.

Laurel, I REALLY love that you care so much about your work and that you want do the absolute best that you can.  I hope that I can help you realize that perfection is not the goal - and that as long as you try as hard as you can whatever you do will be absolutely wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

They each dressed up for the occasion, for Maya that meant a beautiful dress and tiara, for Laurel that meant her "fancy running clothes."