Merry Christmas!

This year was so much fun because there was anticipation to the big day. We have talked a lot about Santa and reindeer and presents over the past several weeks. We even watched Frosty the Snowman together last night. (Twice, actually. Sabine was...persuasive.)

Sabine woke up bright and early this morning (5:40 AM, to be specific) but had completely forgotten it was Christmas. She was just awake for the joy of it. It took mommy and daddy just a few more minutes to find the joy, but we ended up having a really wonderful, magical day with our family.

More to come. Just wanted to wish you all a very warm and happy Christmas.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Last weekend we went Christmas tree hunting with Grandmom and Grandpa up in the mountains. Some of their friends have a bunch of property, and they were very generous to let us take a couple trees...

and branches.

Then we had a picnic in the snow, as was mommy's custom when she was growing up and went out Christmas tree hunting.

Sabine intently sampled the wares, mostly the hot chocolate

and, of course, the assortment of cookies.

Then we got the tree home, and Sabine was big enough to help decorate this year. She had a few opinions about where things should go.

Her favorite ornaments were the little green balls, and she carried one around all day.

Sabine was also interested in the angel who goes on top, although this year she wanted to pull her hair out of the pony tail, as she is apt to do with her dolls. Mommy and Daddy vetoed that idea.

We also went to a Christkindl party, hosted by one of the many German families in our playgroup. Sabine loved seeing all of her friends, but was a little intimidated when St. Nikolaus appeared, so there are no pictures with him.

She much preferred the decorate-a-reindeer craft. Sadly, the reindeer did not survive the ride home with a toddler plied full of chocolate and cookies.

Speaking of sweets, we have an advent calendar going this year. We have a little gingerbread house with 25 doors, and Sabine is opening one each night. The house has become a new favorite plaything, and Sabine is very aware of which doors she is allowed to open, and which ones she has to wait for.

Sabine thinks the idea of getting candy every night, EVEN IF she didn't finish her broccoli, is quite awesome.

Sabine also got to try fondue for the first time. She was underwhelmed by the cheese, but ate her fair share of bread. With her own fork. ("I'll do it myself" is a constant catchphrase at our house, these days.)

And then she and her friend E watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for the first time while the adults finished off the fondue.

It has definitely been fun anticipating Christmas so far this year. Sabine understands so much more now, and is able to talk about it. She's become quite fearful of a lot of things recently, and while hopefully it's just a phase, we're keeping the talk of Santa light. She knows he's coming on Christmas, and he's bringing her presents (a red present, specifically. We haven't yet determined what she thinks is in the red present) but we're keeping the details of his entry vague, and not bothering with the whole "you better be good or else" thing.

We're getting very excited for Christmas day, though Santa better get busy on that red present. It's not going to wrap itself.

The Many Faces of Sabine (at Two Years Plus Change)

How old are you?

And oh! Does Two have so many things to express....

We're having a lot of fun these days.

Thanksgiving and Trains

We had a great Thanksgiving with close family. Sabine's grandparents, Aunt Dani, cousin E, and Great-Uncle Bill were all here.

Mommy didn't burn the turkey like she was afraid of, so we're counting it as a success!



Unfortunately, we didn't turn the camera off of the manual settings, so a lot of the pictures came out blurry, but there was still enough to remember the day.



We spent Black Friday at the Colorado Railroad Museum. Grandpa was very obliging and came down to meet us. This was Sabine's first visit, and perhaps overdue, given how giddy she and Grandpa were the whole time, but it was nice that she was able to get so much out of the experience since it's a bit of a trek from our house.

Making Up for Lost Time!

So sorry for the lack of posting. We got our technical glitch sorted out, and hopefully we are back on track. The blog should now be private. We have to send you an invite for you to be able to see the blog now. (Supposedly.) Please let me know if you want me to send an invitation to another email address, or if you know of anyone who didn't get an invitation.

In the meantime, here's what you missed:

Sabine had a joint birthday party with her daddy this year.

We tried to do immediate family and friends, and we still managed to have quite a party. We went for an Elmo/Broncos theme this year. Mommy had some hits and misses in the creativity department.


(hit)


(miss) -- Though, to my credit, people had already started to dip into the veggies, so it wasn't quite this bad to start with.



Vanilla to start



Chocolate and red-icing-ed Elmo to finish.

Mommy and Daddy also went away for their first joint weekend away without the Little Miss. Grandmom and Grandpa came over to stay with Sabine, and I'm not sure she really even noticed we were gone. We missed her a lot, though, but managed to have a blast with our friends at our (gulp) 10 year college reunion. Luckily, one of my very dearest friends was able to stay for a while longer since she has family in the area, and we were able to get together with our daughters at the Butterfly Pavillion.

Sabine was thrilled to see Miss A, who is almost a year older than she is, but just as affectionate and extroverted as Sabine. Sabine was IN LOVE. And there was much affection by the girls and grinning by the mommies.



We've also already had a few snowstorms:



And Sabine continues to dislike anything covering her hands.



We even made her first snowman, and it was a success...unfortunately mommy forgot to take the camera settings off of manual, so the only pictures I got were way over-exposed. Oh well.



Then we had Halloween, Sabine went as a lion this year, and could tell you what her costume was if you asked her. She often included a ROAR for effect.



Candy went over better this year.



We let her have quite a few pieces, and she had something like a sugar hangover the next day. It was apparently worth it.



The weather's warmed up again, so we've spent a lot of time outside, although both Sabine and I have another cold right now.

We wish you a warm and happy Thanksgiving, and hope to post more soon.

Still Here

We're still here--haven't gone private yet! We're waiting to work out a little technical glitch. In the meantime, happy fall. We've got lots more pictures coming soon.