Having a very Merry Christmas in 2009!

Let the fun and excitement of Christmas 2009 begin ~

"Mommy, Santa bring trains!"Look at all this fun stuff in my stocking: princess panties, glitter nail polish, paint brushes, bubble bath . . .

taking her little dog for a walk (the best dog we could find - it doesn't go to the bathroom and you can turn off the barking when you have had enough)

After some opening of presents in the morning, we were invited to join our neighbors and their family for Christmas dinner. We made and brought our "Jesus birthday cake" to their house for dessert. Daddy says Jesus likes chocolate cake and Lexi says Jesus likes "candy canes" so we put the two together! And here is Jesus' chocolate peppermint birthday cake. The candy cane symbolizes Jesus. The shape of a candy cane is that of a "J", the white color represents the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and the red colored stripe is for the blood shed by Christ on the cross. We even sang "Happy Birthday to Jesus".

Lexi has grown up with Coconut, the neighbor's dog, since she was 6 months old and they both follow each other around all the time.

Best friends ~ Coconut was so nice to share her bed with Lexi.She really is a lot more excited about her new backpack than she looks (this was after 10 hours of Christmas). When she puts it on she looks like a little girl ready to go to school.Aunt Jenny gave her paint and boy was she ever excited!Playing with Handy Man*y and his tools.

Thanks to Papa & Grandma we will be going with the rest of our family to Walt D*sney World in Florida for vacation and to help celebrate Trevor's Make-A-W*sh!Lexi can hardly wait. Here favorite line when talking on the phone is "See you at D*sney World in a couple weeks!"

And we will wrap up our last bit of Christmas 2009 in February when we travel to the "Happiest Place on Earth".
Thanks to everyone who made this holiday season so special and so much fun for us!

Christmas Eve festivities

This morning began with Alexis finding a note in her last advent calendar stocking to build a gingerbread house. Let the fun begin, she helped with all the candy decorations. She did a fabulous job until we were drawing near the end. I knew the project was drawing to a close when she started to re-arrange the candies and figured out they were in fact edible. Here's a picture of our "ginger-house".
This little reindeer was working hard on her "puter" and I missed her wearing her potato head glasses but usually the scene is very serious glasses and all.
We had a nice Italian dinner and then is was time to get ready for Christmas eve church service. All dressed up for church, so we tried to take a few photos in front of the Christmas tree.
She was so excited to see "baby Jesus" and of course, it wouldn't be real if we didn't "touch him". We were so nervous she was going to pick him up.
After church we opened a few gifts,read a new Christmas book,and put out cookies and milk for Santa.The stockings were hung by the T.V. with care . . .in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there . . .The elves did a fabulous job building Alexis a new train set and wrapping up a few other surprises.Can't wait to see all the smiles on Christmas morning and make many more 2009 Christmas memories! What fun it is to be a kid on Christmas morning!

Lights at the Train Park

Lexi's favorite park (and daddy's too) celebrates Christmas with a huge light display. What a perfect combination for a little girl who loves to look at lights and ride the choo-choo train. Here's a quick family photo before riding the train. We are all bundled up trying to bear the brutal Arizona winter.Ready for the train ride.
Lexi, our little penguin.

Baking cookies for Santa

Tonight, we decorated cookies for Santa. It was fun, just the two girls in the kitchen beginning a new tradition together.In just a few days, we will be back in the kitchen baking a birthday cake for Jesus!

Christmas Tea Party

Today, we went to Teddy Bear tea at the Ritz Carlton. We invited our friends Claudia and Olivia to join us. The girls had a wonderful time drinking hot cocoa, eating fancy PB&J, reading stories with Mrs. Claus, watching a puppet show, and sitting on Santa's lap.Alexis and Olivia with Mr. Teddy Beardoing the Teddy Bear march (everyone is invited to bring their Teddy Bear to tea, Lexi brought her Gingerbread teddy bear)watching the puppet showOne last visit with Santa Claus before he heads back to the North Pole for his big night!

"Baby Jesus" is what Christmas is about

Goal accomplished! We've been working Lexi so hard to understand that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of the new born King, baby Jesus. And I think it is finally understood. We've done several things this year to help her embrace the meaning.
Our church had a "Journey to Bethlehem" and we walked the journey. We paid our taxes, spoke with the Jews about the Torah, heard angels sing, watched shepherds herd their sheep, passed the 3 wisemen and learned of their gifts, crossed paths with King Herod, spoke with the innkeepers, and finally we followed the star and found Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the stable.She has her own miniature nativity scene and she plays with her "Jesus people and Jesus house". I am proud to say she knows almost all the statues by name.Proudly sitting on the alter next to where Jesus will be placed on Christmas day. She can't wait to see baby Jesus. I am sure we will be taking "a picture with baby Jesus" at Christmas mass.

2009 Christmas ornament

Lexi got a new red choo-choo train ornament to add to our collection this year. carefully putting it on the treeproudly showing off her train ornament

Light Parade

Tonight, we went to the Carefree Christmas Light Parade with our friends Giavanna, Valentina, JoAnn, & Tomas. The girls all had a good time and it was a beautiful winter night for a local hometown parade.

Winter Party for Heart Kids

Today, we went to the annual Winter Party for Heart Kids. It was so much fun. This loving couple open up their home and bring in snow for the kids to play in (yes, they do bring in real snow to the valley to make winter feel a little more festive), have crafts, clowns, food, hot cocoa, cookie decorating and a special visit from Santa. Lexi had a wonderful time. She especially loved all the Christmas blow up decorations and wanted a picture by everyone (I won't make you look at every one).Playing in the clubhouse with "flicker" the flashlight.A big hug from Santa.
She got a nice big stocking full of fun things, including these reindeer antlers and a candy cane.

George and Baby "Nicky"

Curi*us George has become a favorite around our house. One of our Christmas books is a Curi*us George book and we read it every night and sometimes twice ("read it again"). Well, George was due to make an appearance at a local shopping center so we bundled up and drank hot cocoa while in line waiting to take a picture with George.We also have a baby "Nicky" at our house. Lexi's friend Sophie has a little brother named Nicky and tonight she brings her baby to me and says" Nicky hungry, drink milk". So here she is giving baby Nicky some milk.

It's Snowing!

We went to see the snow tonight.It snows every Saturday night on the hour at one of our favorite shopping centers.

"Santa, I want a candy cane"

We went to see Santa today.

And Lexi told him she wanted a candy cane (I guess she forgot about the trains she wanted). And she was in luck he had a candy cane for her.

Winnie the Pooh Christmas Tail

Alexis is part of a group called HopeKids. It is for children with life-threatening illnesses and diseases. HopeKids sponsors fun outings for children and their families. With the whole idea to really give children hope and give them the opportunity to do every day normal kid things that some are not able to do on a daily basis. We went to our first Hope Kids event yesterday and it was an amazing experience. It was "A Winnie the Pooh Christmas Tail" performed at a youth theater. I thought Lexi would really enjoy it but I didn't know how she would do sitting through a performance that lasted an hour and a half. She absolutely LOVED it!The characters did a great job with the performance.It was a show performed only for HopeKids and after the show the kids were able to meet the characters and take photos.There was also a surprise for all the kids at the end of the show. Operation Noah donated Pooh and friends stuffed animals to the kids. We had such an awesome time we can't wait for our next HopeKids' event.