Christmastime, 2012

Trimming the tree!  

This year, June was too young to reach the ornaments, and Mia was old enough to lose interest in tree destruction, so it was intact the entire month!

Matchy-matchy snowman shirts with pom-pom snowballs from crafty Gma K:

Polar Express day with Gma R: train crafts, jingle bells, and frothy hot chocolate with fun straws.

Festive Sunday stuff:

Architectural Digest (Gingerbread Edition):

By the time these arrived to their intended display location, the gumdrop boxwood hedge was missing...

Mia had Santa hat fever this year.  She wanted to wear this thing everywhere.  It didn't jive well with nice hairdos, so we did a lot of coif improvising this month.

Our always chilly and not-so-glamorous boat ride to the "North Pole."  

June's expression is a result of the ultra-layering. 

This year, the boat left with Gma K on it and the rest of us still on the shore...  

A nice boat captain turned the boat around to pick up the stranded passengers.  

Mall Santa visit sans lap photo:

 $30 for a picture package?  No thanks.

Our sweet Great Gma R carries on the British tradition of Cherries Jubilee every Christmas Eve at her house.  The grandbabies were in awe over the flaming ice cream:

All is calm and bright at 1:00 am, Christmas Eve:

Our documented Christmas morning debut is rather revealing about Mom's control issues, 

but for the sake of authenticity, here it is 

(I swear, they had a free-for-all when the camera was put away):

"Yippee," thought June, "A sippy cup and some organic fruit snacks."

At the R family celebration, the cousins had more fun crawling around in Gpa's present 

(snowmobile sled) than playing with their own!

Gma K made matching flannel nightgowns (Mia's prefered pajama category) for the girls: 

More Santa hat shenanigans with Uncle Ethan:

With a 3 week school break for Dad, glorious holiday merriment (particularly the food), and heightened awareness of the purpose for it all, Christmas certainly is the most wonderful time of the year!