Christmas Eve & the Elf Pets

On Christmas Eve, Katie always takes time to say good-bye to her elf pets since they head back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve until the following Christmas season.

I love my elf pets. Bye until next year Crystal, Natalie, and Genevieve!

Bingle and the Tree

Unlike our young cats that love to climb and take apart our Christmas tree, Bingle just enjoys the tree. Even when our tree is filled with gifts, Bingle tries her best to sleep under the tree.

By Christmas Eve, Bingle just has to curl up by the gifts since she can't fit under the tree.

A Special Job

When Garyldine dropped off gifts on Christmas Eve, Katie was so excited to be the one to bring the gifts in and to place them under the tree.

I was happy to get the gifts for everyone!

It was a good thing that I am strong!

A Snapchat Cat Christmas Eve

We opened the Snapchat app on Christmas Eve, so our cats could look dressed up for the season!

Snapchat makes Bingle look good for an old cat!

Mr. Limpet was all about getting special attention for his picture.

General Washington was pretty unimpressed with the whole thing!

Merry Christmas from our cats!

A Return Gift

When Katie received her gift from her friend, she had been thinking about a gift to also give her friend. She decided to make her some snowman slime.

The best part of her gift was dropping it off. We drove the gift to Libby's house when it was dark. I walked Katie to the front stairs, and I told her to act like a Secret Santa and quietly go drop the gift on the porch. Katie was very nervous because the house was all lit up with inside lights, so she knew people were around. Taking the "Secret Santa" title seriously, she hunched over and tiptoed up the stairs. As soon as she got to the top, Libby's dog heard Katie and erupted in barks and ran to the front window. When Katie heard the dog, her eyes got big and she started sprinting as fast as I've ever seen her. I wish I had it on video. It was so funny! When we got back to the car, Katie decided that she probably shouldn't be a Secret Santa. We laughed a lot that whole night!

I decorated a small jar to look like a snowman and added my slime.

I was so happy that Libby liked her gift!

A Gift from a Friend

A couple of days before Christmas, we got a message that a gift from Katie's friend had been dropped at the front door. It was such a happy surprise for Katie!

Libby gave me some hot cocoa and a set of friendship necklaces.

I kept one necklace and sent the other back to Libby with my gift to her!

Thank you so much! I loved everything!

Remembering Grandpa

Peanut butter cookies were always my dad's favorite cookies, and each year, Katie and I used to bake a batch to give to my dad for a Christmas gift. It was such a tradition that we continued on with the cookie-making, and the process of it brings up such happy memories. We love doing it!

This was the first time that I cracked the egg completely on my own. I was pretty proud of myself!

I stirred the wet ingredients first, but it was pretty hard after awhile.

It was much easier to mix the dry ingredients.

My biggest job is stamping the cookies with a fork. I love doing that!

We ended up making Grandpa's favorite cookies, and we also made Grandma some gluten free peanut butter cookies. They were yummy! I didn't eat any, but everyone said they were yummy!

Playing Dominoes

My mom got a set of dominoes for her birthday, and Katie decided that she better learn how to play the game. Not sure if we were playing 100% correctly, but we still had fun!

My mom and I have been playing this game a lot this week!

A Game of Jenga

Christmas Break means more time for games!

I love getting the Jenga blocks out of the box. It always feels like a success when they come out perfectly!

The first blocks I always choose are the lower blocks.

My turn is done!

Christmas Greetings

Katie loves when holiday cards arrive at our house. She likes to open all of them.

First I found a card from Aunt Carmen and Uncle Bill.

Then I had a special card from Aunt Lois.

The last one I opened was from Grammy Noreen. Cards are so much fun!

A Favorite Christmas Decoration

Katie has loved Rudolph since she first learned of him. A few years ago, she was so happy when we were able to buy the display Rudolph decoration. When we bought it though, they forgot to include the anchors that keep the decoration standing up. We finally bought some anchors and Katie has loved seeing Rudolph in our yard.

I especially love Rudolph at night when his nose flashes on and off!

Warming Up

When you still have wet hair from washing it, what's better than joining your cat in front of the fire?

Mr. Limpet always loves to hang out by the fire.

The heat does feel good!

An Early Gift

Katie was pretty happy to receive an early Christmas gift from her pen pal!

Thanks for my coloring book! This will be fun for my time off from school!

Decorating the Cookies

When the cookies were baked and had cooled, it was finally time to decorate. We didn't have a lot of frosting, but Katie had fun with what we did have.

We had double this amount of cookies, but I focused on this set.

It's always fun to do the decorating.

These were the cookies that we left plain. We always think it's funny that we make gingerbread bones as part of our cookies!

I liked the end result!

My favorite cookies were the llamas!

Cutting the Cookies

Once the gingerbread dough chilled for awhile, it was time to roll out the door and use the cookie cutters. Katie loves the mess of the flour when we do this!

I've learned to try to put the cookie cutters as close to the edge of the dough as possible.

Once I cut the cookie, it's time to place it on the baking tray.

Sometimes the dough needs a little help from my hands.

Sometimes the flour gets everywhere!

A Gingerbread House

Last year, Garyldine had an extra gingerbread house kit that she gave us. We didn't use it last year, but it came in awfully handy this year when we had no other gingerbread house supplies. 

After we made our gingerbread dough for cookies and was letting it chill, we took out the gingerbread house and started to decorate it. We weren't very good with the frosting piping bag. Neither of us had ever used one, which was part of the problem. We ended up just laughing at ourselves and making the best of it.

There was one broken part on the roof, so...

...the first thing I did was to reattach it with frosting.

I wanted to put the light decorations on the edge of the roof, but we couldn't get the frosting to stick, so we let the frosting stick wherever it would, and we just added decorations where the frosting wanted to land.

It was looking better than I thought it would, but we were still laughing!

From a distance, it didn't look bad at all!

We put the year in front of the house because we thought it was a very fitting house for 2020.

We had to make sure to take pictures of every side.

We decided to do a small tree decoration on this side.

The best part of the house was how much laughing we did completing it.

Thanks for providing the house, Garyldine!

Making Gingerbread Cookie Dough

Katie loves to make gingerbread cookies every Christmas season, so we continued in that tradition this weekend. 

This is my favorite part of making cookie dough...mixing the dry ingredients.

This year I took over with the mixer! After we got it mixed, the dough had to go in the refrigerator for four hours to cool!

Oh, Those Cats!

Our cats just cannot leave the tree alone. Katie does her best to help keep them out of the tree, but at the same time, she thinks it's kind of funny.

General Washington thought he was hiding, but he was very noisy as he climbed to the middle of the tree.

Playing Basketball

My sister, Jennifer, and I grew up loving basketball. Jennifer decided that it was important for Katie to learn and enjoy the game. Katie is already a really good dribbler, but she has a hard time getting the ball to the hoop. They went to our local school and practiced for awhile. Katie had so much fun!

Aunt Jennifer showed me how to try the "granny shot" since I had a hard time getting the ball high enough.

I tried from lots of different angles.

With each shot, I got a bit closer to the basket.

Eventually, I tried the more traditional way of throwing the ball.

It was just round 1, and I'm sure each time I practice, it will get a bit easier!