Christmas Party at Daycare

On Friday before Christmas, we went to the annual Christmas party at daycare. Natalie was much more interested in Santa than she was last year:

Looking for Santa...

He's right over there!

Natalie also really enjoyed all the activities in the different rooms:

Making a pretty ornament.

Finding Christmas items in a table full of shredded giftwrap - so much fun!

And of course, a daycare party wouldn't be a daycare party unless she got to decorate a cookie:

That looks yummi!

Merry Christmas!

You might have noticed that I haven't posted much in December. That's because we've been too busy having fun!

Here in December, we've had something going on almost every day, from daycare parties to holiday trips to the botanical garden and to the zoo, to great family time at home. So, in order not to get too stressed out, blogging has taken a back seat for a while.

But not to worry, there will be lots of posts with lots of Christmas pictures - even though they might stretch into January a bit! Oh, well, nothing wrong with making the holiday spirit last a little longer, right?!?

The birthday party

Last weekend, Natalie's friend Aubriella came over for a birthday party. Natalie had requested Backyardigans decorations, a Tinkerbelle cake, and Yo-Gabba-Gabba games. So that is exactly what we had.

The cake was beautiful:

And of course, it was delicious.

Isn't it amazing how the "eating-cake-picture" gets less and less messy every year?!

For the Yo-Gabba-Gabba games, we had a couple of things going on. One of them was a dancing game which the girls seemed to like. But I think the big hit was this one:

Natalie's watertable filled with packaging chips. And little "treasures" for the girls to find. What made this a Yo-Gabba-Gabba game? Well, the goody bags to put the "treasures" in looked like Yo-Gabba-Gabba characters! Okay, maybe a bit of a stretch, but it worked...

After the game was done, Natalie took all her "treasures" and put them back in the watertable, just so she could find them again!

The girls played all afternoon and evening, and they had such a blast (and us grownups had a great time watching them, too). When it was time to get into their jammies, it turned out that they had matching sets:

Best friends in matching jammies - How cute is that!

Birthday morning

Of course, the morning of any birthday is special. We woke Natalie up by singing Happy Birthday to her. Then she came out to her birthday breakfast table:

She got to blow the candles out all by herself...

The first present of the day was a Dora the Explorer toothbrush set:

You may have noticed the flags on the table in the first picture. It's an old tradition in Denmark to use the Danish flag for celebrations. So this would be a perfect birthday picture - well, at least if Natalie had actually smiled...

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Natalie's birthday was just the other day. Guess who's Three?!?!?

Of course, she had plenty of birthday cake:

And we even got a little video of her blowing out the candles!

Happy Birthday, Natalie! You're such a big girl!

December!

We have an old tradition in our family - we call it a Christmas Calendar (some people around here call it an advent calendar). Every day from the first of December until the 24th, Natalie gets a little present. Actually, she gets three, because she gets one from Grandma, one from her Aunt and Cousin, and one from us.

This year I couldn't find the time to wrap it all up until the last minute. So on Nov. 30th, after Natalie and Karsten had gone to bed, I was listening to Christmas music and wrapping up 24 little gifts. I tied them onto an old embroidered "calendar" that my mom made for me when I was little. And I enjoyed it sooo much. There was so much peace and quiet in the house, and I had time to look forward to Natalie opening each present, thinking about if she would like them, etc. I was also thinking back to when I was a little girl, getting all these presents. Good times.

Here's a picture from Dec. first when Natalie got to open the first present:

Such a great tradition.

The Christmas Parade

Last weekend, we went to the yearly Christmas Parade:

Waiting patiently for the parade to start.

The firetrucks were pretty loud...

But it helped when we got the first candy.

There were lots of pretty things to look at.

Wow, that's a big ballon!