Shanti and Aimee: December 2009

Double the Fun!

Shilah & Serena often have a great time just chasing one another & wrestling. The new Christmas toys have brought new conflicts, however. MINE! MINE!

At least they still love to cuddle after bath time :-)

Sledding!

Last Thursday we went sledding in Conifer at Meyers Ranch. It was really cold, but we had fun anyways!

Here is a picture of the highway leading up to our home in the mountains!

And here is a video of Shilah & Serena sledding down the hill together.

Merry Christmas 2009!

Christmas morning was a whirlwind of presents! It was so nice to be part of Lily's first Christmas.

Santa left lots of little goodies in the stockings.

Serena loved the pink pony that Gabe & Andrea got for her!

We had to take little breaks between gifts to play with the toys.

Shilah loved all of her princess accessories, especially the pink sequined skirt that Santa left.

And Serena enjoyed some princess gear as well, but was more enthralled by all her puzzles.

Uncle Keith and Aunt Lauren came over for the afternoon & evening, which was a lot of fun!

The girls enjoy Uncle Keith's craziness... here is everyone yelling "Soup Time!"

We hope everyone enjoyed their holidays as much as we did!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had a great time having family over for a lasagna dinner! As always, the cousins enjoyed playing with each other.

Our guests included Tiffany, Tommy, Samuel, & Tommy's mom; and Gabe, Andrea, Emory, & Lily. What a fun time!

Samuel is now walking...

The cousins had fun at the computer with Uncle Gabe.

They also had fun having a sleepover, so much fun that we eventually had to separate them so they could actually sleep! Christmas Eve was extra special having Gabe & his family spend the night.

And the adults had a chance to relax once the kids finally fell asleep...

Santa left lots of presents under the tree after eating the cookies & milk we left out for him. Shilah was so cute when she asked if Santa knew that he had to take off his shoes when he came into our house.

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Christmas Baking

On Wednesday the girls & I made Christmas cookies. They both enjoyed adding the ingredients to the mixing bowl, and Shilah liked rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters.

Decorating them was the best part! Yummy... whole wheat cookies with honey cream cheese frosting!

On Thursday we made our traditional honey whole wheat cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Here is Shilah kneading the dough, and Serena is playing with her mama and baby zebras.

Party with Santa!

Saturday night we went to our friend's annual Christmas party. It is so fun-- everyone chips in for Santa, and there are babysitters for the kids! Shilah & Serena of course had to wrestle in their dresses before we left.

Shilah asked Santa for a sparkly dress with sparkly shoes, and Serena was too afraid to sit on his lap. The next day, I got Shilah a pink sequined skirt (which will be from Santa). She wondered where his reindeer were at the party, then she answered her own question by saying, "Maybe he is driving his car tonight."

Happy Hannukah!

Saturday was the last day of Hannukah. We did a belated celebration and lit all the candles on the Winter Solstice. Shalom!

School Break

Shilah has 2 weeks off from school for winter break. Here she is posing with a gingerbread house she made in her pre-K enrichment class.

Holiday Hip Shaking

Here are a couple of videos of Shilah dancing to the Chipmunks Christmas album. The first one is "Jingle Bells" featuring her hip shakes, and the second one is "Up on the Rooftop" featuring some rib moves. Serena joins in on the second video and even adds her own twist with jumping off furniture at the end.

The Nutcracker

As part of Shilah's Christmas gift, I took her to see The Nutcracker ballet on Wednesday evening in downtown Denver. We went with Andrea & Emory, and Deb & Maggie & Alex. Here is Shilah trying on my boots with heels...

We had so much fun! I can't believe I've never been to any ballet performance before, and it was so nice to share the experience with Shilah. Shilah was absolutely captivated by the dancing! We even got to meet one of the dancers backstage during the intermission (one of Deb's students).

Serena had some fun one-on-one time with Shanti while we were gone.

Here is Shilah in front of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Happy Holidays!

Jazzer-party

Last Saturday I hosted a Jazzercise holiday party at our studio for customers & staff. It was a blast! Here I am with a few of our instructors.

Card Outtakes

This year was the hardest yet to get a good picture for our holiday card. I had to do two "photo shoots." It was mainly Serena being kind of stubborn, but Shilah got tired of it after a while too. Here are a few outtakes...