Christmas Countdown: Ornament Gifts

We actually got around to working on the ornament gifts today, but of course, I can't show them to you, because some of the recipients would see them.

So, you'll just have to wait. I will give you a hint, though: This year, feet are involved, instead of hands.

Oooo, the suspense!

This Child, I Swear

Peeper (while watching videos): I want to go to the spooky noise video.
Me: Well go ahead.
Peeper: I can't.
Me: Why not.
Peeper: I'm coloring on myself.

Well, so you are.

Good thing it's a snow day for her.

A little while later, after finding out that I also had a snow day (we got upgraded from delay to cancelled!), I went back to bed with Shrike for a while.

"Where's Peeper?" she asked, when I crawled in. "I dunno," I said. "Do you really not know?!"

"The sunroom, I guess. She's fine."

A little while later, she comes in the bedroom, wearing a birthday hat. It was too dark to see much else, so I asked, "What are you?"

"Clown."

These are clown shoes.

And this, evidently, is a clown face.

Even when she can see what it looks like.

There was some sort of explanation about "because one time I was a little scarecrow for Halloween." When I said, "You've never been a scarecrow for Halloween," she said, "Not real Halloween. Pretend Halloween." Oh, okay. Sure.

Christmas Countdown: Cookie Exchange

This MOMS Club cookie exchange would have been our "official" advent activity for the day, but we weren't sure until we got up this morning that it would be happening. Actually, until yesterday evening, we thought I'd be going by myself, but then the public schools got a two-hour delay, which meant that the morning-only kids at Peeper's school don't go at all, and it also pushed back our activity from 10 am to 11 am.

Had the schools been cancelled, the activity would have been cancelled, though, so I didn't want to say anything to Peeper about it until I was sure, so I put in a note about making Christmas decoration gifts, but that ended up not happening because I took a nap for most of the afternoon, so yeah, let's call it the cookie thing.

As if cookies weren't awesome enough, Santa dropped by for a visit, and gave all the kids books.

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If you listen closely to this video, you'll hear that she asks Santa for a baby doll. The first we'd heard of that was when we visited him at the mall last week.

On the way there, I asked if she was going to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas and she said, "I'm going to whisper it to him."

I asked, "What are you going to tell him?" and she said, "It's a secret, I'm just going to tell Santa."

On the way home, though, she told me that she'd asked for a doll, and when I asked her about exactly what kind of doll she thought he might bring, or hoped he might bring, she just kept saying, "I don't know. We'll just have to wait until Christmas morning to find out!"

I'm guessing he'll probably bring her something similar to the three dolls that she already has: Michael, Dory and Claus. Yes, she named them all.

And, while tucking in for bed at the hotel, the night before Shrike's surgery, she said, "I know what the new baby doll's name is going to be," but when we asked, she had to come up with it. She thought and thought, and two or three times, her face lit up with an idea, then she shook her head and thought some more.

And finally came up with . . . Rissassy.

(I have no idea how to spell that, but neither does she, so that's as good as anything else.)

Then she said to Dory, whom she'd brought along for the trip, "You're going to have a new brother or sister!"

So, I suppose we'd better hope Santa comes through with a doll.

Christmas Countdown: Groceries for Good

Oddly enough, today's advent calendar activity was a trip to the grocery store.

Peeper and I bought groceries for the family that our MOMS Club has "adopted" for the holidays, through the Salvation Army.

In addition to provided gifts for the kids (in this case, just one kid, a five year old girl, as luck would have it), we are also asked to provide Christmas dinner and some other groceries.

Thanks to generous donations from our members, we were able to give the little girl four toys that she'd asked for, a filled stocking, an outfit with a matching hair bow (made by one of our members). For her mom, we had a 31 backpack purse and scarf (made by the same member), as well as some gift wrapping material and the groceries.

Well done, ladies!

Christmas Countdown: Baking Cookies

Pending the condition of the roads, tomorrow is the MOMS Club Christmas cookie exchange, so Peeper and I baked a couple of different kinds of cookies this morning.

Actually, she helped me up to about half way through the first batch, then went outside to play in the snow, while I finished those and another on my own.

We made two new recipes this year, Eggnog Cookies

and Candy Cane Crinkle Cookies.

For some reason, Peeper was very excited about the eggnog cookies, despite not really knowing what eggnog was. She did have a taste when we were making them though, and she's a fan.

She took one sip and said, "Oh my goodness! It tastes like ice cream!"

Snow!

We got our first significant snowfall today, and Peeper thoroughly enjoyed it.

These photos were taken early in the storm, it actually got a good bit deeper than that. They're all I got because I didn't take my phone out with me when I was actually playing in it with her, so unfortunately, there's no video of both of us sledding down the tiny hill between our neighbor's yard and our own.

Christmas Countdown: A Christmas Carol

Peeper and I went to see a performance of "A Musical Theater Christmas Carol" this afternoon. This original production was a joint effort between our local ballet company and the local community theater. There was spoken-word acting, primarily scripted directly from Dickens, singing and ballet.

Of course, Peeper got all dolled up in her Fancy Christmas Dress, and we had to take a few photos in the theater lobby.

She did a bit of dancing, herself, during intermission and after the show.

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Puppet Performance

Peeper decided that her new puppets needed their own theater in which to perform, so I threw one together, complete with Sesame Street themed decor. I wanted to get video, but I was informed that there was to be no photography during the performance, so we'll have to settle for a few pre-show still.

Christmas Countdown: Movie Night

Having just gotten home from the hospital after Shrike's surgery, we decided to go low-key on the advent activities, so we all just chilled out and watched The Year Without a Santa Claus this evening.

Peep's Puppets

This afternoon, while Shrike was napping, Peeper finally realized that this hand-me-down book originally came with finger puppets, but that they didn't make it to us, and she was not happy about it.

So, we busted out the Play-Doh and did the next best thing.