Saturday, O' Saturday

 Saturday morning. The girls put on these minority dresses and Tobin got in between them and then wanted out! But don't they look charming...

 They danced a little in the yard, and then when a few people came by they shied from the attention and came back inside to play with some dry beans in their kitchen.

Tobin actually tried to eat some. Twice. And after digging them out of his mouth, and praising God he didn't choke, I let the girls close him out of their room, and he and I played trains in his room...

Where did Tobin go?

And then I said yes to a living room fort...I turned the couches all on their sides and off they went into their house. David, meanwhile had some catching up to do in the office, with my being gone and his recent illness. But he was in and out when things got crazy (and oh they do sometimes).

Date night and boots

In general, every Thursday we try to go on a date. Usually it is for two hours or less, over a meal. A quiet meal. And we started at the end of last year trying to document the year in events, trials, victories, etc. books we read, places we visited, etc. It really is a great way to remember things we may otherwise forget. We usually start the list over our dinner and fill in some things on our own. We realized that we traveled a lot this year!

When we got home, I took my big 'ole boots off at the door, and Sophia put them on. Then Bella put on Sophia's boots, then I put another pair of my boots on Tobin, all for fun....it was hilarious, this is usually how we spend our evenings, laughing at (with, ahem) our kids.

Ballet and more, Christmas continued

 Sophia did put on her new ballet outfit and danced around.

 No, we don't have indoor heating, just space heaters, and only one that we use, early in the morning. By this time, no heater was needed. The sub-tropics.

She is dressed for snow, but...it was a new gift she was just trying it out.

 David had just gotten over one illness, and flu-like symptoms with fever were coming on, so after our long outdoor bike ride/walk, we ate in, grilled cheese, cucumbers, and fresh strawberries for our Christmas dinner. We actually really loved it. 


Finally also, Bella put on her ballet outfit...and showed her style:

 We let Tobin run around in this new onesie before bed. It showed off his chunkiness.

And then there are his feet. I started calling him 'Tobin fat feet' as a little joke. But he started repeating it. And then we told our helper and she started using our surname and adding 'fat feet' in Chinese. We don't do this all the time, but it has stuck a little. David said today we probably need to stop calling him that. He is just so cute and chunky and cuddly and huggable, loveable Tobin. He is our little hobbit for sure!  I couldn't get him to stop long enough to get a good pic.

Then he started propping himself up on the couch, stretching between the trunk and couch and plopping down in between. He thought it was so much fun and got many giggles out of it.

Christmas morning!

 Merry Christmas! Yeah! Bacon and egg biscuits! The girls helped me make them.

We moseyed into our time of Advent readings. We read this book every night from beginning to end for the past 25 days. Usually Sophia did the reading, though both girls could just pretty much quote it. We love this tradition and it is all Scripture! We finally got to open the last page, and complete our hanging Advent calendar.

 We sang some songs, prayed together and opened gifts.

 Tobin had a few more gifts from Poppy and CC to open..his faces are hilarious.

 Then we did our stocking gifts. David received an ikea coffee thermos for him to pack coffee in his backpack on his moto.

Sour candy, some of his favorite

 And Twix, also not local.

And Sophia came up with making these cute fans to put in people's stockings.

Some gifts in the stockings: little aprons

 cool puppets

Huge lollipops with princess Belle on them. They love them some lollipops

recorders....noise makers!

some hammering tools

Excitement.

She put on her apron, and her new ballet shoes (they also got leotards), and started on the lollipop!

Then our friends came over, four young ladies, including our helper. We were so thankful they came, I told them NO gifts, but they brought small ones.

We fed them our biscuits and bacon and they really seemed to enjoy them!

 We hung out, played and enjoyed good company. Then we put on the Nutcracker (barbie) in Chinese and watched for a bit.

In the afternoon we went outside for awhile, bike riding and Tobin riding in the stroller. We went over two miles and it was nice and warm, mid-70s. We had a wonderful Christmas day! Low key and truly blessed.