The past couple weeks have been in the 40-50s... which I am okay with since it is supposed to be winter time.  However, the past several days have been closer to 0 degrees with the wind chill.  So, I have to say, there is nothing better than a nice, warm drink!  My favorite being milk steamers.  If you live close to me, you know how much I like these things, if you don't, you should try them!  It really is just steamed milk with flavored creamer and heated in a cocoa-latte maker (it just makes the drink foamy...yumm.)  I think hot chocolate is usually too sweet, so this is a pleasant, but not too sweet treat!  So, if you have a hard time enduring the frigid weather...maybe a fun drink will help!

Almost a Quiet New Year too!

We had originally made New Years plans that kind of fell through, so we again made a run to the store for the girls to pick out some treats for a family New Year's Party, very last minute, though unlike Christmas Eve I think we actually had like an hour before the stores closed! Then, David called and talked to the Stevens who were also just planning a quiet evening, so we decided to rain on their parade.  We had a good time and the girls were excited to have someone else at the party too!  They also enjoyed their dogs and Abby even named her new Webkinz after their cat Lilly.  

Jeana informed me she wanted to make some decorations for the 'party' and then disappeared for a while.  She then came down and said she made a sign of the USA because we all get to celebrate the new year here.  So she spent a long time coloring the pages with marker.  So cute.

There is a fun game called sleeping queens that our neighbor introduced us to and it is one I enjoy playing with them too.  So, I was trying to be a good mom and play with them since they didn't have any little friends around, but then Dad turned on the Steven's big TV and Shrek 2 was on, and they wouldn't have anything to do with the game.  How rude! (well at least I tried to give them some attention!)

A Quiet Christmas

Christmas morning the girls slept in until 8 and fell asleep to a movie at 6:30pm.  I was surprised they woke up so late b/c the day before a very concerned Abby kept reminding Jeana to wake her up when she got up.  I think though that they had a good day and were happy with all the fun new toys.  

We decided not to go anywhere for Christmas this year and to just plan a summer trip.  I must admit, it was not my favorite Christmas.  Christmas can get really chaotic, but this year there was definitely not much of that.  I think it was a little too quiet.  Though that was partly our fault for not extending invitations to all our other good friends who stayed here too.  David said he wanted a simple dinner for Christmas and so we were really just going to fix mac & cheese, but on Christmas Eve, the girls informed us they wanted ham, potatoes (like Melinda fixed for Thanksgiving), carrots, jell-o and pudding (I don't know where these came from b/c we rarely have either.) And since I wanted to make their Christmas a good one, we made it to the store with 10 minutes to spare before closing up for Christmas Eve.  The hams were of course picked over so we didn't have much to choose from, but we managed to round up a few things and make do. Christmas Eve the Runyans were kind enough to brighten our Holiday season by inviting us over for dinner.  We had a great time and the girls acted out a very cute rendition of the nativity.  Abby loves to be baby Jesus and requested to be again this year, though she is my baby she isn't so little anymore!

 

I did finally get a Whirley Pop (popcorn popper that is seasonal, so I've been waiting patiently.) We have had popcorn everyday since Christmas and we love it... another thanks to the Runyans for the introduction!  I hope everyone else had a good Christmas! 

So, I had been wanting a fun Christmas plate set for awhile and couldn't decide between this set and another more elegant set, in the end and after they had been setting out for a month, I decided to take it to a family vote and my girls chose the snowman plates.  So, here is our cute Christmas table set-up.