Holiday happenings

Yesterday I was fortunate to spend a delightful afternoon with my sister (who, if mom had had a blog would have been Little Sister), and my daughter (aka Big Sister). My sis came over with my nephew, J-man, who would be staying here at the house with his uncle and cousin for some guy time (which sounds like it involved playing a lot of Wii - I think hubby now wants one).

The ladies were headed out to see The Nutcracker ballet. My sis and I have fond memories of our grandma taking us to see The Nutcracker when we were little, and thought it would be a lot of fun to take Big Sister.

Here we are all dressed up and ready to go...
My girl was the perfect age to go see this ballet. The set was gorgeous, the dancers were fantastic, the venue was cozy, and we had great seats. She was riveted the whole time. I am so glad we went, and we'll definitely have to do it again in the future.

The forecast had been calling for snow to begin by Friday evening, but by nightfall on Saturday we were only just beginning to see the first few flakes drift down. We all ate dinner together, and then participated in another long-standing tradition: cookie decorating. Our grandma used to have my sister and I over to her house to decorate Christmas cookies, and we loved it. We would get pretty artistic about it too, until we started to get bored and began dumping sprinkles wherever. I think part of the fun of it for me was the pride I felt when I saw the cookies we had created, displayed with all the other edible creations on Christmas day. Modern day Mom that I am, I take advantage of a few shortcuts: store-bought sugar cookie dough and icing. The kids don't seem to mind...

Natalie wanted to do her own frosting, but the boys wanted theirs pre-frosted








We tried to set-up a shot of Little Brother giving Big Sister a sweet kiss on the cheek, but she wasn't having anything to do with it...


The snow was starting to pile up (relatively speaking, since we only got a couple of inches), and the temps were predicted to plummet below freezing and stay there for the next week or so. We'd planned for my sister and nephew to stay overnight with us, but it seemed safer to have them drive home while the streets were still clear. It was probably for the best, as the hill we live on is now a sheet of ice. They made it home, safe and sound.

Not sure what today will hold. Little Brother developed a barky, croupy cough in the middle of the night. He sounds awful, poor guy. Maybe he'll snuggle under the blankies with his Mommy in front of the fireplace today.