All Things Love.

Just wanted to say...."we love you this much!"...here's a picture of the kids in their Christmas PJs...may today be especially cozy and warm.

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All Things Santa.

On Christmas Eve, I made a little fairy gathering place out of some beads, silk poinsettias and scrap wood... and the fairies gathered...the girls just played and played and played with them...sometimes it's just the simple things...

And then we did our Christmas Eve traditions...the brother and sister gift exchange...Alex bought Kata a Barbie, Island Princess CD player...which she loved...and which Bella broke a mere 18 hours later...sigh...she truly loved his gift...Bella got an Ariel doll from Alex...and the girls gave Alex some more Star Wars figures...I think its safe to say his collection is complete!

The we played "Can you spot the pickle on the tree?"...and Kata won this year...but all three kids got a prize...a new Disney ornament for each...

Kata's was Minnie playing soccer...

Alex was Mickey playing soccer...

And Bella got the Socerer's Apprentice...

And then bedtimes were as follows -

Alex - 10:30, Bella and Kata - 11:30, Ken and Sophie - 1:00...we kept an eye out for Santa using Norad's Santa Tracker and thank goodness we got to bed when we did...because Santa arrived shortly after that...and Becks...our canine alarm clock didn't even growl! And Santa must've loved his Hershey's Kiss cookies and chocolate milk...

This is what 6:30 a.m. looks like at our house on Christmas morn'...can you smell the coffee brewin'?? I can!

Alex was the first one up...and Becks, of course...they had to touch and in Beck's case, smell, the gifts...

Kata made it down around 7-ish...

And in a flurry around 7:15...Bella!!!

"Where's Purple Dolly???" Bella wanted to know...

Alex got more Nintendo Gameboy cartridges....

Hmmmm....Santa always wraps things in Santa paper....could this be *the* Hannah Montana doll??

Why it is!!!

Apparently...*NOT* the Purple Dolly of her dreams...does anyone know what a Purple Dolly should look like?? We thought Santa did well given the somewhat open to interpretation criteria...

More gifts?? A Belle Tea Party Doll set...that was a huge hit from Maka!

More??

Santa didn't forget Mama with a gift of jewelry...how did he know???

Daddy got a nice new pair of running shoes for his early morning fitness runs...

We're liking Purple Dolly a bit more...

Stocking time...Kata was busy reading her new favorite book...Purpalicious...by the author of none other than...Pinkalicious!

Alex got the stopwatch of his dreams...no more counting seconds for Running Club at school.

Ken got some snazzy new slippers...that A) He can mistake for his actual shoes and once again go to work in his slippers...or to a Wolf Pack game...yes, he's done both for the record...and B) He can now turn his old pair into a newly created category of shoes (he created it last year) Garage Slippers...for when your too lazy to put on shoes and just need to pop into the garage for a second...or perhaps to take out the trash...Garage Slippers! I can hear the OxyClean guy yelling out the infomercial now...

And Santa remembered Beckham...he got a new pull toy...two treats (both wheat-free) and a Santa's Bakery candy cane style cookie just for dogs...oh, and a Bichon ornament for our tree...

The best presents of all are handmade...Alex's creation this year...It reads "The important thing about Christmas is that Baby Jesus was born. Christmas is snowy. Christmas is joyful. But the most important thing about Christmas is that Baby Jesus was born."

Kata's creation...love the handprint art...it makes me weepy...

And Alex also made this beautiful painting...Santa's sleigh and reindeer...

This soccer mom is signing off...."and to all a good night!!!" indeed...Thank you everyone for everything...the presents...the phone calls...the well wishes...the prayers...we love you all...each and every one...now I'm going to go put on my fuzzy leopard print PJ's and watch my DVD of "Meet Me in St. Louis" while consuming some of my homemade Ghirardelli fudge and that yummy Nutcracker Tea...Merry Christmas once more.

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All Things Joy.

The last 24-hours was filled with Pure Joy...Baka and Djedo bought tickets for the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker performance here in Reno...and Alex, Kata and I all went to see it...what a performance! What a dance troupe! It was simply brilliant and the dancers were beyond compare...Kata enjoyed it from a ballet point of view...Alex loved the special effects and the athletic ability of the dancers...I just enjoyed the whole thing...especially my kids all dressed up...they sure do clean up nice!

And my Bella, who cannot even sit through movie previews nevermind the feature film, got to stay home with Dada and do some last minute shopping after which they retired to viewing the Sharks game and anything on ESPN...especially the ticker scores...don't feel sorry for her...she got to boss her daddy all around the store...my little Shopper In Training.

And this morning, the morning of our church's Christmas Pageant...all of the kids decided to come into our bed...so grumpily, I headed off to Alex's bed just to catch another 15-minutes of snooze time...when...Dog Pile, literally on Mama!!

Which brings me to another funny Bella saying...for all the reasons you can think of...when Becks does something he shouldn't...I've taken to calling out "oh, the dang dog..."...for those of you giving me mental pats on the back for not cursing, I thank you...so...guess who's picked it up? Yeah, Bella...except she uses it as part of his name...as in -

Me: Bella, can you give the dog a snack?

Bella: You mean the dang dog, Mama?

Me: I mean the dog, Bella...Becks, the dog.

Bella: Me give the dang dog a snack? Okay, Mama, I give the dang dog a snack....weeeeell...

And then it was time for the Christmas Pageant...and both girls were angels...here I am clipping on those angel wings...no surprise that they had some trouble staying on our angelic youngest one...

Alex was Joseph for a second year in a row...and here he is with the Wise Men and a wayward shepherd...all buds from Sunday School.

And after all the preparation...it was over...the costumes were beautiful and the children well behaved...people kept coming up to me to tell me how beautiful it was...the angels, the stars, the Wise Men, the shepherds...Mary and Joseph...only one little angel got a little restless and climbed down off of the soleas to be with her Dada...our very own Bella...this was a great first try...but here's to next year...and an even better staged pageant...wishing you a moment where you are the star of your own show....cheers!

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