Jennifer and I were telling Katie about when she was little and used to sit on the shelf in the living room. She didn't have any recollection of it. One of our favorite pictures of her was when she was in Christmas clothes with the one hat she would wear at the time and looked like a little elf on the shelf.
Katie wanted to get her cats some Christmas gifts, so we headed off to the pet store and found one bag of cat toys that could be shared between the two cats. She couldn't wait until Christmas to give the gifts to the cats, so they received the gift a few days early.
After making the peanut butter cookies, we made sugar cookies for Katie to decorate.
We used to always make peanut butter cookies for my dad every Christmas, so it became our own little tradition. Katie doesn't usually eat any of the cookies, but she always likes to help with them.
Both cats have really been loving the gingerbread house that Katie got for them.
Katie was so excited to get her first Christmas card of the season!
We woke up on our first day of Winter Break to a dusting of snow. It wasn't much, but it excited Katie nonetheless!
One of Katie's friends from school dropped an early Christmas gift off for her at the house. It was such a surprise for her!
It was a cold morning, so Katie decided to take her bubbles outside and see if they did anything different.
Katie and I had seen a video on how to make a Christmas tree hair style, so we decided to give it a try.
Katie had asked if she could get a small gift for each of her friends at school, so we went shopping. When she got home, she was excited to do all of the wrapping.
Katie had her dance observation week for the holidays. It was another limited audience performance this year, but I was so happy to be able to go see her dance.
Since Katie is in the highest grade in her school, her class was given a school shirt that was made only for the 5th graders. She was so happy to get it.
Katie chose to get her teachers caramel covered apples this year for Christmas because it's one of her favorite treats.
The thing that Katie had been waiting for is putting up Jennifer's North Pole village with her. It's a lot of work, but it is always so cute in the end.
We were over at my sister's house, and Katie was excited to do something. What could it be?
In Katie's class, the students created their own mythical creature and they wrote informational papers about it. As they finished with their writing, they got to create their creature in paper mâché. The projects are on display by the library. Katie thought paper mâché proved to be very difficult but still enjoyed the experience.
Our friend had told us about a store that was filled with all Japanese items, including the books that Katie loves. While we were in the city, we decided to head there. On the way, we stopped at her other favorite bookstore.
I was putting together a gift for my students, and I had two helpers to make the process go much faster.
Katie was surprised and happy when we went to the movie that the theater was giving out free movie posters.
Katie really wanted to go to the new movie, Encanto. We have not been to the movie theater for the longest time, but when she wanted to go so badly, we went to a late showing of the movie and had so much fun.
We were so sad to say good-bye to our faithful friend, Bingle, last week. Katie has always had Bingle as part of her life since she came home from China. Bingle wasn't a nine-life cat. She was more like a fifteen-life cat, and we were lucky to have her.
Bingle lived a happy 21 years, and we will miss her!
When Nigel the Elf returns for the season, he brings Katie an advent calendar.
With the start of December, Katie's elf and elf pets returned.
Katie was so excited to get our Christmas tree up!
Katie found a gingerbread house for the cats and really wanted to get it. The cats were very curious about it.
