Wonderful Christmas!

We had a great Christmas. I was able to take some time of work this month and it was so nice to really enjoy the time and get ready for the big day. We still had a lot of events but we also did some things that we didn't have time to do last year.

Malia got to see Santa many times this season. I think her favorite was seeing him at the Mall of America. You can set up an appointment and Santa sits and really spends time with each kid. Malia was so excited that she even forgot what she wanted to Christmas. The moment completely reminded me of Christmas Story where Raphie forgets to ask for the Red Rider bb gun and says yet to the football that Santa brings up. In Malia's case it was a princess doll:)

We got to go to the Holidazzle in the middle of two cold sweeps. It was still chilly but not to the point that we had to skip. We were able to meet up with some friends. After the parade, we went to Macy's to see the exhibit - Day in the Life of Elves. Malia had a great time and of course we had to see Santa, again. It was nice to keep up this tradition.




Another highlight for the month is seeing the Princess and the Frog movie (not once but twice already). Malia wore her Tiana dress that we got on our trip to Disney and she had a blast. She didn't like the 'mean guy' but loved the rest of the movie.

On another note, we had a memorable time making Christmas cookies. For anyone that knows my cooking and baking skills this will not come as a surprise. I really wanted to take the time this year to bake some cookies from scratch. My idea was to make spritz cookies with Malia. We seemed to start out good. We mixed together all of the ingredients but the 'dough' was way to liquidy, So then we add more flour, and more flour, and more flour. It finally seemed to have the right consistency. So we proceeded to get the first batch ready. It looked like normal going into the oven but when I checked if they were done I was in for a big surprise. See the pictures below... Well, it seems like I refilled my flour canister with powdered sugar by accident! I can't believe it still but it really happened.




As for Christmas itself, it was special even with the extra snow. We spent some time at my parents house so we wouldn't have to travel back and forth. We loved spending extra time with my parents and my sister's family.




In addition, Malia got the long anticipated piano from Santa but her first comment was 'It is not very big'. Our response was that Santa brings toys and therefore she got a toy piano. I don't know where she got the idea that she was going to get a real full sized piano. At least she played with it after that. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and my thoughts go out to those still waiting to see their child for the first time.