All Things Santa...at Church.

We had such fun today at the Parish Christmas Party...while I was helping with the costumes, the kids all had fun working on different crafts...Kata made a beautiful wreath along with a handprint craft...Alex was king of woodworking, building a fort for his green army men (a tribute to you, Uncle Ricky!)

Bella got to be, well, Bella...running around the crafts, playing with Play-Doh and in general just racing around looking at everything and everyone.

This shot is for my mom...just to prove that I *can* make ethnic baked goods...the middle is a traditional "lokumi" cookie, or for the Greeks in our parish, kourabiedes...the other is good old fashioned American fudge...I finally conquered the high altitude cooking challenge of mushy fudge...this was melt in your mouth, 60% cacao Ghirardelli chocolate fudge...and on the far right...peppermint bark...with milk chocolate instead of white chocolate...because milk tastes better...and because I nuked the white beyond grainy description when I tried to make it late last night...the peppermint bark or the fudge with a cup of coffee...is a little bit of bliss on a busy day, folks!

A proud Mama with her girls...the boy child was still gluing his wood fort....

Nothing can get between these two sisters...eh??

And then Santa showed up...in a Christmas preview mode...just to tell the kids to be extra good this week...he's still watching...he told Kata that they both have glasses and that made her feel extra special.

This picture is of Bella, who has just soiled her diaper...and is anxiously awaiting Daddy's arrival with fresh diapers and wipes...in a moment of sheer insanity and confusion, I didn't bring the bag containing both...that would be my "purse" or the giant handbag that is relegated to that lovely function...she didn't want anything to do with Santa...can you blame her?? She felt all icky...and miserable...Alex had to go up and get her present.

And our darling Alex...waited and waited and waited, as everyone got a present...and his didn't come up...we knew Santa had it in there somewhere...and then at the very end, as Father George was about to thank Santa for taking time our of his busy schedule...Santa pulled out the final gift...and told Alex how special he was because he got the last gift out of his bag...Alex just beamed.

And then, inexplicably, Bella (now all "April fresh"), said I want to sit on Santa's lap...and so she did....

May you remember the magic of Christmas today and every day...we sure did.

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