The Nutcracker!

Part of Shilah's Christmas present was me taking her to see The Nutcracker ballet. Her friend's sister was in it, which made it even more special! Shilah was captivated the entire 2 hours.

Shilah and her friend:

Serena was happy to get some good Daddy time! She had no interest in the ballet, but Daddy promised to take her to a Monster Truck show soon :)

Merry Christmas!

Gabe, Andrea, Emory & Lily spent the night Christmas Eve, and it was so much fun! We had a yummy dinner, then watched The Polar Express.

The kids had a fun time with their stockings and opening gifts. So much excitement!

The weather was not too Christmassy, but beautiful & sunny!

Keith & Lauren came over for Christmas dinner & we exchanged more gifts.

Serena added lots of horses to her collection!

And Shilah loved her girly gifts:

Baking!

Making whole wheat gingerbread cookies:

Frosting and decorating, the best part!

And our traditional whole wheat cinnamon rolls with honey-butter glaze, a recipe passed to us from Grandma Evie!

Parties!

On Sunday we went to a cookie party at our friend Deb's house-- yummy!

Aunt Andrea & Cousin Lily went too!

After that, we went to Tiffany & Tommy's new house for a Hannukah party and yummy dinner:

Cousins!!!

Our Little Elves

Serena and her Snow Horse

Serena and I had fun building this! Unfortunately, the fun ended when Cosmo peed on the horse's head.

Traditions

Decorating outside:


Decorating the indoor Christmas tree:

Hanging the stockings & building a fire:

Looking at the lights (and stars) with homemade hot cocoa:

Serena doing some shopping:

Lighting the menorah... Happy Hannukah!

A couple of family pics

At Daddy's Work

While my parents were here, Shanti gave us a brief tour of the new Research Support Facility (RSF) building at National Renewable Energy Lab. One of the most energy-efficient office buildings in the world!

At daddy's desk:

Drawing on daddy's board:

A nice view of some more of NREL: