Molly received a video message from Santa

Click HERE for the message

A Gingerbread House?

A friend of mine showed me a gingerbread house that her daughter made with her dad. They made it out of graham crackers. Seemed like such a great idea...and so simple. Um...huh...well, today Molly and I headed out and got some candy supplies and using the left over frosting from the Hanukkah party decided to put together our own gingerbread house.

The roof kept falling in on itself. Molly said with that sweet little head of hers cocked to the side and her one eye squinted, "I think we should wait for grammiE"


But we persevered. Since daddy is in Arizona I thought we could go with that flat top roof that seems to popular in the desert. Whatever...it kind of worked and we do have that FAN-TAB-ULOUS house to make with GrammiE once we get to the cabin.

Trying to clean up a bit and Molly said "I'm licking my way to happiness" -- in the end I think her true motive was met.

Oh, well it is the effort that counts, right?

A Santa Visit

I've been dreading the Santa-at-the-mall visit since Molly was born. I've successfully avoided it because of my stellar neighborhood that has a direct line to Santa who then visits us on the block each winter. But this year, it looks like Santa might not be able to make it to Harkness Street for photo opp's. So this morning, Molly picked out her Christmas outfit, complete with reindeer headband and we headed downtown. I had heard that there were fewer crowds, and thus less wait. I looked up the location, the photo package options, and the time and we had a plan. But when we arrived not only were there no lines, there was no Santa. I double checked my phone, and the rather large posting on the wall next to where Santa was scheduled to be. All correct. Looks like Santa is a no show. But just when Molly was getting discouraged, guess who came around the corner? It was old (actually pretty young) St. Nick. He gave Molly a big hug and offered to take photos. And then he was off. I have no idea what the plan is for the mall but we came home pretty happy and with a pretty cute photo.

Molly's Winter Program

Molly wishes you a Merry Christmas

A Fancy Nancy Christmas

I couldn't get blogger to allow me to upload Molly reading the Fancy Nancy Christmas so I posted on YouTube. Click here to see!

Starting to feel festive!

I've finished grading for the semester and we're all feeling a bit festive! Yesterday we took a family outing to a bookstore for a kids' holiday storytime. They read a number of fun holiday books including Fancy Nancy and Olivia Christmas stories (Molly's favorites) and The Polar Express (Jon and my favorite!). The Pavillans is all decorated...here are a few pictures of Molly getting into the spirit!

Happy Hanukkah!

We had a wonderful kids' Hanukkah party yesterday. Over a dozen kids decorating Driedal, Menorah, and Star of David sugar cookies. There was frosting everywhere! We're still finding frosting in interesting places (a little blue handprint on the couch for example!) It was gooey and messy and totally, completely FUN!!!

Unfortunately, we're having trouble with our camera but here are a few pics of the day:

Happy Hanukkah from us!