Christmas v.MN, Part 2

And then it was Christmas morning. One new thing we had this year for Christmas morning that I hope becomes a tradition was Jen's chai spiced hot apple cider. She makes and sells her own blend of chai, which you can check out on her etsy site. I'm assuming she used the mulling spice to add some amazingly tasty extra flavor to hot apple cider. Seriously the best cider I've ever had, and if you're unfortunate enough to live somewhere cold right now, I highly recommend making yourself some. But stupid me didn't take any pictures of it, so you'll just have to believe me.

So, Christmas morning, Santa, and all that, then.

Lily was probably most excited to see that Santa and the reindeer had eaten the cookies we had left for them.

She's still talking about it, actually.
And then we moved on to presents. Stocking presents are kind of a big deal at Nana's house. Lily was more than happy to join in.

Ben and Erik may have been less thrilled.

But I'm pretty sure Lily's favorite stocking stuffer was the orange.

But it was fun to open them.

Shari and Lori were supposed to be there on Christmas day, but they were snowed in (winter=total crap). At least we were able to visit via technology. And we still had our ugly ornament contest. (I was totally robbed, btw. My ornament was the worst, but it's in poor taste to vote for yourself. Next year is mine, I tell you.)

Later on, we had a big turkey dinner.

Since there were enough cooks in the kitchen, Lily and I set the table.

This picture cracks me up. When the food started to land on the table, she was ready to eat it.

Eventually, the rest of us sat with her, too.

And that was Christmas in Minnesota, and since I have no logical way to work these pictures in, I'll just put them here. Mom's townhome is on the corner lot and they have a big pine tree in a rather prominent position. For the last couple of years, they've been stringing blue lights on the tree, and this year they added a star on the top. Since it looks like it's no easy task to put it up, I thought it deserved a couple of pictures to share with the four five of you.

Christmas v.MN, Part 1

Pretty sure I'm the last mommy blogger on the planet to post about Christmas, but my laptop is out of commission, so my computer access is limited. We have another computer in the house, but I can't hide from Lily as easily with it. So I'm behind, but I'm getting caught up. Here's our Christmas Recap, the mini-series. We'll start in Minnesota.

There was a LOT of snow in Minnesota.

Poor Princess was barely visible. We definitely weren't in Florida anymore.

Ben and Jen (Bellingham's most nearly-nauseatingly adorable couple) were already there.

We went to Stillwater to poke around a bit. Stillwater is a cute little town on the river with fun little shops and restaurants. It's a definite place to visit if you like antique shops.
Ben amused himself the best he could.
Back at home, Nana still had some cookies to decorate. Lily put on her brand new, cookie-bakin' apron that Nana made her and was ready to frost and sprinkle. She liked the sprinkles.

A lot.

If you don't mind her methods, Lily's cookies were especially yummy because of her generous frosting and sprinkling techniques.

Outside, Ben and Jen were playing in the snow. They built a tunnel/fort.

They were very proud of their work.


Mom has this tree in the front yard with bright red berries on it. It was so pretty in all the snowy whiteness, I really wanted to get some pictures of it.
But my fingers got icy and I got sick of trying.
Daddy and Lily came out to play in the snow, too. Lily had a bucket and giant spoon and was ready to build a snow castle.

Khan played with the white stuff, too. Y'all have no idea how badly he wanted to throw that thing at me.

At first it was great, but then this happened. Lily just wanted to move her hood out of her eyes, but her mitten was covered in snow.

And that was the end of snow castle making.

Kitty's lunch.

You know when you have a task that is far too daunting, and so you find any way you can to avoid it and make it worse?

That's what this post is. I'm avoiding Christmas pictures. I'll get to them, I swear. In the meantime, these pictures suck, but the story makes up for it in cuteness.

I was home with Lily the other day, trying to get things cleaned up, reorganized, and put away for the next 11 months. During rapid cleanup, we stuck our plastic serving trays on top of the cupboards. There were three serving platters, one giant bowl with a punch ladel, a three-compartment tray, and a bear-shaped cake pan. I stood on a chair and pulled them down to put them away. Lily came along and announced she wanted to help. So I handed each item to her to set down for me. She did, and then she began to play with them, doing pretend things, lining them up, and other odd things that toddlers do. Fine, no problem. I went about my business cleaning up the house.

A few minutes later, Lily wandered around the house saying "Meeuw? meeuw? meeuw?" I asked her what she was doing, and she said, "Where Kitty?"

We found Kitty sleeping in Lily's room, and Lily said "Wake up, Kitty! Lunch!" as she marched out of the room.

Moments later, she reappeared with the three-compartment tray on top of the serving platter. A spoonful of yogurt had been placed in each compartment, and a spoon was provided, too. She gleefully told Kitty to wait as she ran back to get the other two trays she had prepared.

She instructed Kitty when to eat from which bowl as she happily and repeatedly proclaimed "lunch for Kitty!"

Kitty was all too happy to oblige her being the yogurt addict that she is.

First Lily instructed Kitty to eat from the cake pan.

Then she took it away and decided it was hers.

It was all too perfectly adorable until Lily tried to scoop yogurt into Kitty's mouth with a punch ladel. Kitty backed up away from her, and apparently Lily was offended. She came to me and said, "Kitty no like me. Kitty mad at me."

Oh, my heart broke. How do you explain cat behavior to a toddler?

So I hugged her and told her how nice it was to make this lunch for Kitty and I was so proud of her.

She smiled and was better, and so was I.

How long will I have this power? Please tell me it's forever. I don't know what I'll do without it.