A picture of part of the group before we filled our bellies!
On November 28th, we celebrated Madeline's birthday with our normal balloon release. This year we had to find a new spot. I'm not sure this will be our forever spot. It was a little different because in Minnesota in November it seems like it gets dark at 4 pm. This meant that we couldn't wait until Dave got off work to do the balloons in our backyard, so we had to meet for lunch.
This is my favorite picture from that day of the girls watching the balloons.
Then it was time to meet Santa. For a while, Makenzie would say she wanted a live reindeer from Santa. She would say, "he has a lot of reindeer". So I guess she figured he could spare one for her. I'm all for kids having their imaginations and I try not to intentionally sway their decisions too much, but I thought in this case it would be best to steer her in another direction. I was sure Santa wasn't going to deliver a live reindeer, nor did I want him to. I figured Santa could find her a really cool pink bike.
We talked up Santa for a while before it was time to meet him. It didn't help. She cried when she saw him and wanted nothing to do with him. And of course, since Makenzie was scared of him, so was Brinley. But then his elf handed Brinley his bells and she was good. In stepped the sister competition, and Makenzie was chatting away with him. She made sure he knew she wanted a pink bike and that Brinley wanted a baby doll (I may have had a little to do with that one also)!
Here's a picture of our mantel. I was super excited about the finished product and loved that we used live garland. Oh, and that I got a nutcracker. I've always wanted one.
I just really like this picture of Brinley. Even with a bruise on her cheek!
This picture is from Christmas Eve. It's amazing how children listen to you when presents are promised. Brinley tries to stand IN the tree when we tell her to stand next to it. If you're wondering where the presents were, they were hidden away downstairs so the littlest hands didn't rip them open early.
Makenzie with Santa's cookies and milk. The carrots are for the reindeer, Rudolph got the celery.
Christmas morning. Again, Brinley is trying to get IN the tree. I had big plans to record Makenzie's first reaction upon seeing her bike. This didn't happen because she snuck downstairs before we woke up. She was still quietly excited. We think she was more interested in making sure the reindeer got their carrots & celery (she was VERY concerned about them finding it). I think it was all very surreal to her.
A little while later she told me, "Santa thinks I'm big enough to ride that bike, but it's too big for me".
I told her it's probably just her size because, you know, he just KNOWS these things and he's probably a little over the top in the research department and probably looked at a bunch of bikes before deciding on the ONE and he probably even consulted Google and found some kind of chart giving the proper size bike for the child's height.
Alright, I didn't tell her all of that but anyway, she realized then that it was just her size and she is a pro at riding it.
The day after Christmas we hosted the Meyer gathering. Again, so much fun for all the same reasons as Thanksgiving. Makenzie and her cousin Charlie really like to hug and kiss. I can't wait for their reaction when they see these pictures in another 7 years or so.
It wouldn't be right to not post a picture of the annual pageant when talking about the Meyer Christmas gathering. Makenzie was in white like all the other angels (for about 2 minutes), but she wanted to add some bling to the picture and chose one of her dress up outfits and paired it with my wedding tiara. I couldn't be more proud.
The girls loved having almost all their cousins in the same place!
Smooches!!
