Life is Wonderful: Wintery Fun

Decorating the Tree
Sophie is finally old enough where she can help us hang ornaments. She would carefully get them out of the box and put them on the tree. Of course all of the ornaments that she placed were pretty close together, but who cares. She had fun and so did we!

Josie was intrigued by the tree.

Sophie fell in love with this ornament and hugged it for a few minutes before putting it on the tree. So sweet!

Snow Days
One of the perks of teaching for a county school is that we tend to get a decent amount of snow days. Those back country roads can be so dangerous! I love getting the call saying that school is cancelled. We ended up getting three snow days before winter break! It was so wonderful being able to spend the day with my two sweeties. Staying in our pajamas, snuggling on the couch, taking pictures, doing art projects, calling daddy and having fun is so much better than driving in the snow and working all day. These unexpected days off with my littles are such a blessing.

A snow days was the perfect opportunity for taking pictures by the tree.

I saw a picture like this on Pinterest and thought it would be great to include on our Christmas cards. The girls were good sports while I tried to get a decent picture.

This was my favorite picture that I took. Of course Sophie sweetly putting her arm around Josie takes away from her 'naughty' title. (They are still pretty accurate bloomers though.)

Yummy Treats
Sophie was so excited to help out with making Christmas desserts. We made buckeyes, brownies, and decorated a gingerbread house. Sophie's role was supervisor, stirrer, decorator, and taster. My mom bought a small apron for Sophie to wear while helping us bake. She is adorable in it! I love having her as a helper in the kitchen and can't wait to cook and bake more with her.

Festival of Lights
Each year the zoo puts up over two million lights, a, ginormous tree and other decorations for the Festival of Lights. It is so beautiful! We had wanted to go for a few weeks, but the weather never quite cooperated with our schedule. We finally made it there two days before Christmas. It was so cold! We bundled up (Sophie was wearing a skirt and leggings earlier that day and refused to wear anything else. She is quite stubborn and we didn't feel like arguing even more with her.) and made our way to the nocturnal house (one of Sophie's favorite exhibits). Most of the other animals were indoors and with the amount of people who were there we didn't stick around too long. We did a quick lap around and found some indoor activities at the educational center. Sophie was able to write a letter to Santa and put in into the North Pole mailbox. After that we decided to go back home and defrost. The lights were so pretty, but it was just too cold and too crowded to linger.

Playing in the Snow
Sophie couldn't wait to go out and play in the snow. She and Joe went out on the back deck and threw snow around at each other. Then she ate about half of the snow off the deck. Sophie had so much fun and couldn't wait to play in the snow again.
During one of our snow days, while Josie was sleeping, Sophie and I bundled up so that I could shovel the driveway and she could play in the snow. There was a decent sized pile of snow in the grass at the top of the driveway. Sophie, being the awesome free spirit that she is, took off running and jumped right in it! I was so impressed (and maybe a bit jealous that I didn't think of it first). She didn't love the experience though. She was upset that snow went up the sleeves of her jacket and wanted to go straight inside. She hasn't wanted to go play in the snow since then. Hopefully she will change her mind as the winter continues.

Holiday Parties
My mom was watching the girls on my last day of school before winter break began. The three of them stopped by school to join us for our class party. Sophie loved seeing all of my students and they loved playing with her. She loved the attention and the food (pizza and ice cream cake...yum!). Josie wasn't too sure about the crowd of people and wanted to be held by me and my mom the whole time. It was so glad to have them there with me.

Mom once again pulled through for us and watched the girls so that we could go to Joe's work party. Dinner was great and it was wonderful getting to meet so many of the people that he works with.