Christmas Day

Christmas morning! The girls anxiously await going into the living room to see what Santa brought...

Oh, they were thrilled with their "loot"! Santa did good this year...

They both got dolls, Kate got a baby care center, and Anna got a vanity. Goodness did they have fun playing with all of their new stuff!

Kate serving tea to Grammie with their new tea cart...

A bank from Grammie and Bucko...as Kate would say, "FEEESH!! FEESH!". I think the fish-face that accompanied opening this gift was my favorite Christmas morning memory this year...

A Tangled nightgown AND sparkly Sketchers? Anna was one fancy lady...

Kate sported her new hat, gloves, and sparkly shoes to go outside and check out the cold weather we had Christmas morning...

Being sure her new puppy was healthy with a wonderful vet set from Grandpa Pete and Grandma Paula...

A wonderful, blessed Christmas, and a great end to a very very blessed 2010!

Christmas Eve

We were so lucky to have Grammie and Bucko come spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us.

They came early enough on Christmas Eve to go to the special Children's service at our church. The girls (and we) loved having them there with us!

As was the tradition in my family growing up, we let the girls each open one gift after we got home from church.

Kate picked her gift from Anna--a monkey from Build-a-Bear, and Anna picked a gift that turned out to be a Magic Fabric maker she had wanted. Everyone was thrilled with their selection!

A family pic.

Bucko and Grammie.

Anna decorated a gingerbread house with Bucko and Grammie while I got dinner together. What a great Christmas Eve tradition to start!

Anna's work in progress...

And, of course, Christmas Eve dinner. Our traditional (started by my family) lasagna. What a wonderful evening...

Nutcracker

Anna and I took our 2nd annual trip to the Nutcracker this Christmas season. I just can't believe how much she's grown since we did it last year!

She loved the ballet so much, and thought the costumes were just fantastic. She's already bugging me about what she has to do to dance in it next year. Hmm...twist my arm...we'll have to look into that...

With the Sugar Plum Fairy, her favorite!

MOMS Holiday Party

So, in my effort for a more calm, enjoyable Christmas season this year, I decided that we should have our MOMS Club Holiday Party at Gattiland, instead of doing some big party where everyone had to bring potluck items, decorate, etc (one of the benefits of being the party committee chair!). A success! I think all the kids had a blast, and at least I think the parents appreciated not having to add any more overhead to their already busy holiday season!

Even Kate had fun playing the games!

And, of course, greatly appreciated the pizza buffet...

Um, Daddy...I think the games are supposed to be for the kids?

This was Anna's first attempt at playing skeeball (my personal favorite), and she LOVED it!

Climbing in and out of the car is way more fun than sitting and riding in it...

Festival of Lights

Another one of my absolute favorite Christmastime activities to take the girls to is our local Festival of Lights. The lights are beautiful, and I love that its a local event...

Much like last year's adventure, it was pretty chilly this year! But, that just adds to the ambience...

Family pic with Santa. As you can tell, Kate was not the biggest fan of Santa this year...

More cookie decorating! It never gets old...

We may not have White Christmases here in Texas, but we certainly do have Christmas light mariachi bands...

Christmas cooking baking

What would the Christmas season be without multiple cookie baking extravaganzas? Anna adored the icing pen that she got for Christmas, and had so much fun decorating these Rudolph cookies.

Her final products--not too shabby for her first time with an icing pen! Maybe we have a future cake decorator on our hands??

She also loved making Mexican Thumbprint cookies with me. Once we got the batter mixed up together, she did the rest of it all by herself...rolled the balls, dipped them in egg whites, dipped them in pecans, and arranged them on the cookie sheet. My little baker...

Christmas in Tomball

We had the most wonderful time in Tomball at Grammie and Bucko's for Christmas! Here, the girls wait patiently to open their first (of many!) presents...

Kate had many the long (babbling) conversation with Bucko...

...and loved snuggle time with her cousin Sydney.

Who knew Bucko was so good at accessorizing?

Grammie and Bucko got the big girls skate for Christmas. I was both excited and terrified at the thought of Anna on skates (on the concrete!).

But, she did GREAT! In no time at all, all three "big" girls were skating like old pros!

Kate wasn't quite ready for skates yet, but did insist on donning a helmet to ride around on her little ride-on toy. I think she's so ready to be able to do what the bigger girls do...

We also had a great time with our extended Williams family. The girls loved playing with their cousins, Charles and Will (and Drew and James, not pictured here...).

And, one of my favorite pictures--Kate playing with my mom's old baby dolls....

Christmas parties at school

Both of the girls had so much fun at their Holiday Parties at school this year! I love that Anna's teachers this year fully believe in the need for kiddos this age to "party", so they basically make the party last all day. So much fun!

Kate loved getting to eat "treats" with her little friends...

...and, unwrap a gift from their class book exchange.

In an effort to teach the kids about many different religions and cultures, they played a game with a dredil in Anna's class...

Anna's class also got to do the coolest thing this year--a few different groups within NASA "recruit" her class to come sing at their Christmas Parties! This particular concern was for the NMA, but they also had a great time singing at a few other parties.

Choir girl...

They were just too cute...