Is it Christmas?

 Hello!  It's been a bit since I've blogged. My apologies to my loyal followers.  It's been busy around here!  Last weekend I went to Grandma's and Steve had a photo shoot with me. Any excuse for me to wear my fancy dress I'm game!

 With a face like this, don't you just want to give me ALL the presents?!

 Andy the cat even got into the modeling action. He wasn't the most cooperative model however.  Perhaps if he had fancy Christmas clothes to wear....

 Last Sunday night we headed to the Hollidazzle Parade.  This is one of our annual Christmas traditions.  It was 40 degrees and it really doesn't usually get much warmer than that for the parade so we (along with a lot of other people) thought it was a good day to go.  We got all bundled up and waited for the pretty light parade to start.

 Daddy, my hero, chased down the blinky light person and got me my beloved star. 

 Toward the end of the parade I declared I was tired and really needed to sit down.  The nice people in front of us slid over a bit and made some room on their blanket for me.  Being the friendly girl I am, I chatted and chatted away with them. 

 Santa is always at the end of the parade.  He always has so much bling for Hollidazzle! 

 We have been busy making lots of different Christmas cookies.  I've been Mommy's junior baker.  On Saturday we did the cut-out sugar cookies which is always a half day event!  I got my apron on and was ready!

 I noticed Mommy's belly was getting a lot of flour on it (Mommy's expanding tummy tends to "catch" everything these days) so I suggested she get her apron on too.  So we both wore our aprons.  She doesn't have a cool Dora apron like me though.  Here I am ready with the cookie cutters!

The best part of cut out cookies is the decorating!  I got to pick out the cookies I wanted to decorate and then got my own tray, own set of various colored frostings (I had requests for lots of different colors), and then my cookies go into a special container just for me to eat.  I am actually getting much better at being sanitary (no more licking frosting off cookies and then re-frosting) but I put so many sprinkles on that adults aren't as into my cookies as I am.  So I decorate how I like them and get to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

 

 Here are my completed cookies.  My most "interesting" one was my blue elephant with Halloween sprinkles. 

 Today we had a big snow storm!  We're not sure exactly how much snow we got, but probably about a foot or so.  We braved the roads and made it to Disney on Ice late this afternoon.  The roads weren't great, but Daddy is a good driver and got us there safely.  I was thrilled they had popcorn there!  Daddy, again my hero, chased down the popcorn guy and got me a box. 

 I ended up eating a good portion of this box.  I LOVE popcorn! 

 Disney on Ice was pretty good.  I really really really liked some parts and was scared at the usual parts of Disney movies (Beast and Gaston fighting, the sharks in Finding Nemo, etc).  I loved when all the princesses were ice dancing with their princes! 

 It's a Small World on ice was really cool too!  Mickey came down in the hot air balloon! It was amazing!

This is the view from our front door.  The lights you see are our candle path lights.  They are completely buried now.  Daddy shoveled 3+ times today.  Daddy asked Mommy if we were going anywhere tomorrow and Mommy said "NO!"  I guess we are just going to hibernate at home tomorrow. 

What else is new with me?

• I'm doing really well in swimming lessons.  I've found my stride and I have my favorite teacher (her name is Megan too!) this round. 
• We got to try on our recital costumes at dance this week for sizing purposes.  I was confused by this as I just assumed I'd be doing my monkey dance again at the recital.  As it turns out, this year I get to do 2 new dances.  My new costume is pretty, but I do have a special affinity for my pretty pink monkey costume.  I still perform this several times a week in our living room.
• I was so excited to see the snow this weekend.  I said, "Mommy it's Christmas!!"  and I said we needed to move the carrot on our snowman to 1.  You see Grandma got me a countdown to Christmas snowman and you move his carrot nose every day to say how many days it is until Christmas.  Mommy explained that even though we often have snow for Christmas, just because it snows, it doesn't automatically make it Christmas.  That was a bit of a bummer.
• On Friday Mommy had a doctor's appointment and we got to see baby brother "on the computer" (ultrasound).  Now that he's gotten so big, it's not as fun as before.  It's sort of hard to tell what you're looking at when it's so "up close".  Anyway, baby brother is still measuring about two weeks ahead and is estimated to be 5 pounds 5 ounces.  Everything with Mommy and the baby is just fine..he's just kind of big! 
• Speaking of baby brother, my parents really think I'm in serious need of a sibling. I spent a good portion of Saturday trying to convince Alex (my cat) to play school with me.  I was really bummed out when he didn't cooperate.  My parents suggested perhaps my dolls or stuffed animals would make better students.
• I've been learning a lot about the Christmas story at preschool and at home and have gotten really into it.  I love talking about it.  I really really want to go to Bethlehem and have mentioned this to my parents a lot.  My Mommy said that it is just too far away.  I told her, "We just need an airplane and a donkey!"  I have an answer for everything!  I usually preface these sort of things like "I know..I have a great idea......"  This morning's great idea was that we could go back to Disney World with baby brother and he could just sit on my lap on the airplane after Mommy said baby brother would be too little to really have fun at Disney World.
• For once, a funny story about a different kid.  When Mommy was coming in the door to pick me up at preschool the church bells were ringing.  A kid behind her kept yelling "Ice cream! Ice Cream!"  Mommy wondered what this kid was talking about when his grandma started laughing and said, "Those are church bells...not the ice cream truck!"
• One day while Mommy was making lunch I noticed a box of Ritz crackers in the pantry.  I told Mommy, "I'm really hungry for something.....it's really crunchy and you put cheese on it.  I know....It's a cracker!"  How could Mommy say no to that?