Claire's 3rd grade Christmas party

Claire had her holiday party at school today. They did a craft, had cookie cake, and played games. It was a fun time. Claire was the first one to score any points in the ring toss game!

 Claire and her friend Allison.

 Averi, Allison, and Claire....good buddies!

 Claire and her homeroom teacher, Ms. Price

Children's choir at church

Claire was able to sing in the church Christmas choir this past Sunday morning. The choir sang "Away in a Manger" and they sounded so beautiful! Claire really enjoyed being in the choir!

Did we wake up in Minnesota?!

What happened the other night? We woke in the morning to see we had MORE snow on the ground in Cypress, TX than our family had in Minnesota! That is about the most crazy thing I have ever heard! However, we did have one very happy child for a little while! So pretty and so much fun when you know it won't stay on the ground!

Making Christmas cookies with G-Ma!

We had a great evening last night making our first batch of Christmas cookie cutouts. We even got G-Ma in on the baking action!

I went to help roll out the dough when I was stopped and gently told 

"now mother, I've got this, I can do this myself". Then I was kindly asked

to step away and keep my hands to myself! Well, then...I guess I got kicked out

of my own kitchen by my independent 8 year old baking daughter!

 We can't bake cookies without putting flour on our noses! This was a tradition with our Snugglebunny when he was still here with us. He LOVED to bake and we often found him and Claire in the kitchen making cookies. Of course he made sure to always have a dab of flour on his and Claire's noses the entire time!

 It never fails, there is always a picture of Claire being her silly self!

Loving time with G Ma!

So many things to be thankful for this year! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my mom here.

 It is so fun to watch Claire and G Ma tease each other and laugh! I love the relationship they are

building!

 A good relative of ours sent us a family tradition that she has passed on from her mother. 

We had a fun time making Christmas ornaments out of beads and will plan to continue this

tradition in our family from this year forward. Thank you Elaine for getting us started on this

very neat tradition!