A Wonderful Christmas (Squeals of Happiness)

I have so much to blog about regarding Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I am honestly still recovering from all of it. I am so tired (and I'm still battling some vertigo) and don't have enough wits about me to blog right now. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were wonderful. Briana had the absolute best time. There is nothing more magical than hearing to the squeals of happiness when your kid opens up a present she has been hoping for months from Santa Claus.

I'll let a few pictures speak for themselves for right now. I have long posts coming soon...

Merry Christmas To You

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Cookie Baking Cousins

Tuesday morning, Aunt Amy and Cousin N came over to our house for some Christmas cookie baking fun! The kids got in their cooking baking/decorating gear and went to work. Their motto is "you can never have too many sprinkles"...

The kids had a blast and the cookies turned out delicious (though a bit on the sweet side - ha!) There is nothing more fun than baking cookies with your cousin (except for eating them)!

Gingerbread House

Saturday morning, Briana and I made our yearly gingerbread house. I glued it all together and slapped the white icing on top, but Briana did everything else. She was the complete gingerbread house designer this year.

It was so dang messy again this year. Every year I say I won't do it again. But Briana loves to decorate it and she begs me to get one whenever she sees a kit, so I cave in. It did turn out pretty cute this year. :)

I need to also add that our church did an adorable little Nativity play the other day. Bri and her PSR class got to go and watch.  I just had to post a picture...

Bri's Holiday Party At School

Friday at 11:30 was Briana's holiday party at school. She was so excited that me and Daddy were able to come. Here she is all dolled up for school...

When Doug and I showed up, the kids were not in the classroom yet. They came in a few minutes later and started looking for where they needed to sit...

They put on their Santa faces (I volunteered on the Monday of that week, as well as a few other moms, to help the kids with this project and a few other Christmas crafts)...

The kids recited two poems and sang a song before the pizza party...

Briana asking her teacher for more pizza...

Mmmm, this is good!

The girls had a book exchange and then the boys did one. This is the girl book swap. Bri's teacher would read a page of the book and then the girls would rotate the packages...

Jackpot!!!

Briana and her friend I...

Briana and her friend P...

After the book swap was cookie decorating. Doug said that the first thing Briana would say to me when she was done decorating would be "Mommy, take a picture please." She totally did...

 

And Bri's teachers had wonderful gifts for the parents. The first was a bulb of Bri's hand print...

The second was this amazing calendar...

 

The night before the party, Briana recited the poems to us that she was going to say in school the next day. Here they are...





Right after the party, we checked Briana out of school (there was like an hour left - no reason to sit in car line). It was a wonderful way to end the first half of the school year. Now Briana has two whole weeks off for Christmas vacation. I wonder what super fun things we can squeeze into two weeks! ;)

Holiday Performance At School

Briana's holiday performance at school was on Thursday night and only the kindergartners performed. They were so cute! All the kindergartners needed to meet in the gymnasium, and it was a bit chaotic when we first arrived. Lots of unruly kids running around. Hrrrmph. But once the teachers arrived and the kids figured out where they were supposed to stand, the performance was adorable.

Here is Briana all dolled up in her festive Christmas attire... 

Briana ran into one of her classmates when we first arrived...

The kids impatiently waiting for the songs to start...

The kids performed four songs - "Jingle Bells", "Rudolph", "Feliz Navidad" and "We Wish You A Merry Christmas"...  

Here is some video...





Here is Miss B standing in front of her classroom door that is decorated for Christmas. One of the room moms put this together for the door contest - it turned out so pretty...

Some Christmas cheer in the hallway...

Daddy gave Miss B a yellow rose for her hard work...

Gramma and Papa came for the performance...

Bri was so excited to be able to sing for us. I sometimes still can't believe I have a "kindergartner." I was so worried about her in August and didn't need to. Look how comfortable she is now.