Christmastime fun

Although I worked a bit more during December than usual, we still tried to make sure we squeezed in some traditional Christmas activities. 

Visiting Santa! 

Playing around while waiting for Santa to arrive and Mommy to finish shopping!

One of the rare occasions where Ella would actually stop long enough for a picture and Aubrey is a blur!

Visiting Santa 2011 in Woodburn
*I have to admit that I love how much these girls love going to visit Santa
== adorable yearly pictures*

I tossed the idea of Christmas cookies/gingerbread houses/other fun seasonal sweet treat. Honestly, I kept feeling like I wasn't ready/willing to take on the messes associated with any of these fun sugar highs ;-) However, I did come up with a compromise that ended up working rather well. We did rice krispy treat cutouts with cookie cutters then decorated with frosting and sprinkles and the works! Our friends Ethan, Micah, Grant and their momma Jana joined us for the fun.

Aubrey working on her masterpieces then sampling one 

Ella decorated them chose wisely on her sample...the largest one on the plate!!

Ethan was the most intense when it came to concentration and precision with his decorating. When sample time came, he preferred to sample the frosting both from the bowl and the knife!

Grant sampled as he went along. Sprinkles proved to be his favorite!

Micah loved the decorating and sampling. However, he got very nervous when he saw me touching his rice krispy treats! Fortunately his fears were calmed when I told him I was just wrapping them up so he could take them home =) 

The crew hard at work. And I have to admit, the mess wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been given  the crew ;-)