Visit to Richmond

For Boxing Day, we went to visit Cynthia and her new puppy dog, Annie Oakley. Jo was thrilled! And the puppy gave lots of dog kisses.

Cynthia gave Josephine a coat she quilted herself that is based on the song "Angels Watching Over Me." It's adorable.

And my best friend from high school, Robin, stopped by. She made me delete the really funny photo of us...

And then, at the end of the day, Jo was so tired!!! Me, too.

Our Christmas Fairy

On Tuesday, I took Josephine to see the Nutcracker Ballet - or the Coconut Ballet, as she calls it. She loved it. I couldn't believe she sat through the whole thing. Probably helped that I gave a running explanation of the story. Her favorite part: "When the tree get bigger bigger bigger bigger." In her new fairy outfit, she was pretending to be Clara waking up in the middle of the night dancing with her doll. She also created a huge picture of the entire theatre and stage - including the drums in the orchestra pit, the stairs, the hallways, and our seats. Her art recently has begun extremely detailed. Her faces have eyeballs, eyebrows, cheeks. She loves loves loves to draw! And dance.
And then she gets, as she says, "exhausted!"

Christmas Day

Of note:
1) Josephine is meticulous when opening presents. She does not rip or tear. She carefully finds the seam and slowly - s l o w l y - undoes the package. Who is this kid? She has not inherited this from either parent...

2) Sam likes chocolate.

3) The day after, the two of them were enthralled by - nope, none of their new toys: a BROOM.

We had a lovely day.

It's a Pink Christmas

Sam and Jo playing dress up with friends. Look at those wigs!

Me trying to get pics of kids with pink Christmas tree. Impossible! (for me)

We've been playing the "pudding and" rhyming game I played with my mom as a kid - Jo loves it! She doesn't always rhyme - is always creative - but then sometimes she really gets it and rhymes something like "Christmas stocking" with "wrapping," which I love.

Sam is big. He eats everything. He loves to play peeka boo and chase.