Pre-Christmas Post

OK, so before Christmas actually gets here, I really wanted to get this LONG post of all our pre-Christmas activities out of the way. We have been doing A LOT during the month of December. Our activities have included counting down to Christmas and doing crafts (not all crafts pictured here):

Making tortilla snowflakes. YUM! I got this idea off of Our Best Bites. I asked Fanny if I could have a little taste of hers when they were done and ended up eating all of my own snowflake, which I was NOT going to do. They were really good, though! NOT healthy, but very tasty :-). Fanny's is on the left and mine is the one on the right.

I asked her to hold up her snowflake. Hehe, she looks like she is holding a Spanish fan!

She wasn't sure about taking a bite into her masterpiece. Once she took the first bite, though, she ended up eating the rest of it, too.

Making paper snowflakes. So I forgot how fun it is to make a snowflake. I was having a blast cutting these out. Fanny helped me pick shapes to cut and then identified the different shapes she saw in the snowflakes.

Presents, packages, cards, trips to the post office, more presents, more packages, more cards, more tirps... We didn't put the presents under the tree for fear the girls would try to tear into them. Do you like the orange Lenscrafters bag? I was going to go get a bag downstairs for one of Fanny's Hanukkah gifts, but this bag was already on the counter because Joseph had gone to get contacts that day. Hey, it worked :).

Making our traditional Christmas goodies, Oreo truffles!!! This year's flavors included orange, amaretto, hazelnut, peanut butter (made from Nutter Butters), and regular dipped in white and semi-sweet chocolate. Ah, I just LOVE these! The best part is getting to taste them...I mean, give them away to nice families.

Aunt Peerli and Uncle Brent got the girls these adorable outfits for Christmas. Hope you don't mind, Sis, that I already opened them and had them wear them :). These outfits are SOOO adorable, though. Fanny wanted hers off as soon as we got home. She ALWAYS wants her dresses off right after church. Her favorite outfit is a pair of purple sweat pants with a purple shirt with a butterfly on it. Look how cute Nora is and how fast she is catching up to her sister!!!

Ha ha, she really wanted me to stop trying to take pictures of her.

We went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see all the beautiful Christmas lights. WOW!!! They are literally stunning!

Nora loved the sheep! She likes to say, "Ba ba!" and all kinds of other animal noises. She is saying a lot of words now, too. What a character this girl is!!

Not the greatest quality, and the girls do not look that happy, but hey, it's a picture of all of us!!

For preschool the other day I had all the families over for the letter "M" to decorate cookies. "Merry Christmas" was the theme and some of the things we decorated with were M&Ms and marshmallows. We also mentioned Mary, the Mother of Jesus and mistletoe. It was a ton of fun. Fanny loved it of course. She had a lot of fun taking her time carefully decorating her cookies and tasting the frosting as well.

Of course, we have been celebrating Hanukkah!!

I made sweet potato latkes for the first night. YUM!

Fanny and Nora have been getting some small presents and gelt each night.

And, to end this month recap, I had to include these recent pictures of a couple things I discovered Fanny lining up. She did these all by herself. She loves to count EVERYTHING lately and is super good at it, especially one to ten, but even attempts to get to twenty. Notice her in the first picture in her favorite outfit. The shirt and pants didn't even go together originally.

Don't know why this picture isn't turned, it is in my computer album, but look how she grouped her letter. She recognizes all of the alphabet, upper and lower case, and is getting better at what sounds they all make.

Nora is a bundle of laughs. She is always smiling, understands everything we ask her to do, loves to mimic sounds and actions, and absolutely adores her sister.

It is going to be such a fun holiday weekend!! Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to everyone!!!