Cupcakes

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...

Well, the girls presents are all set out. We are so blessed. I wish we could every child as many gifts and as much love as Annika and Olivia get. My mom's love language is giving gifts. She is very good at it and the girls are certainly very happy recipients. My mom got some bells (like Santa sounding ones) and rang them while I was reading the girls their books. Their eyes got huge! They were so excited. Olivia knows about Santa, but we still do it just to be fun. And it is so fun! She wrapped him a gift (a ho ho ho throw blanket and a picture and card she made), made him choc. milk, carrots, cookies, and an apple and a knife to cut it with. She told me, "KK would only let us put out an icing knife. How is Santa supposed to cut an apple with an icing knife?" That is very true and funny! I like that she thinks that a certain type of knife is called an icing knife.

Tonight we went to the Christmas Eve service at my parents little church. It was very sweet and the girls enjoyed it. At the end they did the candle lighting while we sang Silent Night. Olivia seemed old enough to hold her own candle and she really enjoyed that. She only almost caught my hair on fire a couple of times. I looked down at Annika who was standing by my mom and I motioned for her to come by me. I carefully let her hold my candle. She looked so sweet and I wanted to get a picture of her just like I had gotten of Olivia. I looked down for about a half a second to turn on my camera and when I looked up Annika's hair was on fire!!! I mean flames- not just smoking. I just grabbed it and put it out with my hand. We headed for the bathroom. I couldn't bring myself to look until we got there. Thankfully, the black, burned ends wiped right off and you can't really tell. I am not kidding- I really am thankful. That fire could have spread really quickly. I washed that part of her hair when we got home because it didn't smell so good. She was SO tired and needed to be in bed. She now smells like toasted coconut. :)

Annika shortly before her hair caught on fire.

The girls ready to ice skate. Yes, I make them wear bike helmets. Olivia did really well and was skating by herself some at the end. Annika could hardly even stand in the skates. I didn't anticipate that. She skated some in her crocs and then watched from the side begging to go to "Chicken Nuggets," which is her name for McDonald's.