Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas

Ellie has been practicing all week for her big debut during the MHCP holiday sing, enjoyed by Ba, Mommy and Daddy. She impressed everyone with her fancy twirls with her partner, Nicholas.

Ellie loved belting out Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer with gusto! 

Afterwards, she took us to one of her favorite spots next to the school. 

Later that night, the girls and Mommy took Ba to see the Nutcracker danced by the Moscow Ballet. 

It was a magical night filled with some beautiful dancers and costumes. 

Christmastime in New Jersey!

We had a delightful time with Bebe and Popi and the family this weekend!  Evie and Ellie were excited to give them their gifts: a plate and a stocking ornament. 

Another year, another couple of inches! 

Mom and Bryn just hanging around! 

Molly rings some bells as we sing some carols. 

Stan's favorite: Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. 

...onto Frosty the Snowman! 

Time for gifts! 

We had delicious cupcakes to celebrate Aunty Karen's birthday - time to blow out the candles! 

  

Speaking of candles, time to light the German pyramidin! 

It's Tradition! Christmas starts with the Scottish Walk

One of our favorite traditions is celebrating the holiday season with the annual Scottish Walk in Old Town.  The parade seemed longer this year and with less bagpipers than usual, but it is always nice to see the doggies in their cute holiday outfits, Darth Vader wearing a Santa hat, and of course, load up on candy. 

This year the girls' candy stash was limited to what they could fit in their pockets, leading Ellie to exclaim "My pockets are exploding with candy!"  Meanwhile, Evie had a Santa tummy that shook like a big bowl of jelly, ur, candy. She made great use of a third pocket in her jacket. The best part was seeing Santa at the end, of course! 

Then it was back home to decorate our house and the beautiful tree Dad got that morning.  Ellie really got into the unpacking and was the master of all the lower branches. 

Evie was delighted to find this picture of her and Santa when she was only 3 months old. She looked like a little baby elf! 

Dad puts the angel on the tree, which would be the finishing touch if not for the train around the bottom of the tree!  Another successful tree decorating session. 

Thankful for cousins...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving celebrating at Bebe and Popi's house where the kids had a grand o' time. 

The next morning they had a blast putting together the English village and sprinkling it with snow. 

Hip Hip Hooray! Popi turns 75 years young!

We traveled up North this weekend to celebrate big Popi's big birthday - all the cousins were there for the celebration, properly attired, of course! 

Popi had a surprise for us as well: a beautiful rendition "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. Bravo, Popi!

Evie and Ellie read their cards to Popi.  Ellie drew a picture of Popi at the beach and Evie's card was golf-themed: "You're the best Popi by par!"

They also helped unwrap their handmade gifts: painted wooden spoons for Popi's famous spaghetti and meatballs!

Miss JJ got to spend more time with her cousins by sleeping over, and the next day we took the kids to the beach to take pictures for our annual holiday card. 

Lovely ladies enjoying the sunshine on the beach!

Dia de los Muertos

On Sunday we traveled down to the Museum of the American Indian for their Dia de los Muertos celebration. The girls enjoyed doing crafts like paper flowers and paper cards before we headed upstairs to hear Native American legends and try to find some totem poles for Evie's art project she is working on. 

There is a great kids section on the third floor where the girls explored elements of Native American culture, like living in a teepee, basket weaving, building an igloo... and in this instance, practicing our skateboarding skills. 

Ellie also took Brown Bear on a kayak ride...

...and later practiced her balancing skills for a real kayak with the initial help of Dad.

We ended the day with some coloring before checking out the ofrenda (altar) on the way out.  It was a fun day! 

Halloween Traditions

One of our favorite traditions is going to Mommy's work for the annual Halloween party.  The girls enjoyed trick o' treating down the spooky hallways before sitting down to enjoy the magician make balls disappear and turn red handkerchiefs to blue.  Above, Ellie is amazed while Evie looks a little skeptical. Evie would later impress Megan with her own magic tricks.

On Halloween, we stopped by Nall's pumpkin patch to pick out a new beauty as the one that was sitting on our porch for the last couple of weeks got a little moldy and had started to be scratched at by cats or raccoons (?).  

The girls become tamers of these never-seen-before snake gourds - spooky!

Ellie is hosting "Brown Bear" from her preschool so we also had to take him on an adventure in the playground.  Ellie and Brown Bear say hi to a couple of raccoons at the park.

Once we got home, Evie was happy to help with the gross task of taking out the "guts" so Dad could complete the carving of the pumpkin. 

This year we dressed our headless man in Dad's varsity sweater from Dartmouth. Even Brown Bear got in the spirit by dressing up as a cool snowboarder.

Evie likes looking inside the pumpkin head.

Finally costumed up, the girls show off their "Brittany the Chipette" and dragonfly costumes (homemade by Mommy, of course).  After a night of trick o' treating around the neighborhood, Ellie said, "Everyone kept calling me soooo cute."  [head slap] Evie felt like a "famous person" because her costume got raves.

We had a great time at Gina, Eric and Cole's house where we enjoyed pumpkin decorating before a delicious dinner and hitting the streets.  It was another successful Halloween!