Holiday Merriment!

It has been a fun filled couple of weeks!  My last day of school was December 19 (Woot woot!) and it has been non stop since then.  We kicked off the holiday merriment with a Christmas party at Tanque Verde Ranch.  Mom, dad and I had such a great time when stayed there a few weeks ago, we thought it would be a great place for all of our friends.  It was a perfect night- chilly enough to break out the winter gear and feel a little bit Christmassy but not so cold that we could enjoy ourselves.  There was all kinds of stuff to do (including line dancing lessons) and Madeline and I are old enough now that we just took care of ourselves most of the night.  The parents were able to relax and enjoy themselves.  Win-wine!  Perfect!

On Sunday, dad and I built our annual gingerbread house.  We are getting better and better every year building it.  Ginger tried to help this year but it didn't go well.......

Dad's birthday was Monday the 22nd and to celebrate, he took me up to Dave and Busters in Phoenix.  We won all kinds of tickets and prizes- it was a successful day.  When we got home, Nana D and Mr. Walker were waiting to greet us!  Yeah!  Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue came over and we had a delicious birthday dinner of meatloaf, brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.  Hopefully, it was a good day for Foo-Foo.

Tuesday, mom had to work while the rest of us enjoyed a beautiful day.  Dad and Mr. Walker went mountain biking while Nana and I headed to the zoo.  Did I mentioned mom was working- she had almost as good a time as we did.....

Wednesday was Christmas Eve and the ladies spent the day in the kitchen cooking and baking up a storm.  We aren't sure what the boys were doing, but I'm sure it was productive.  Oh wait, Mr. Walker was so bored that he did some yard work for us.  Things look definitely cleaner out there now!

 We headed to church Wednesday evening and came home to have dinner and drinks with our old neighbors who were in town.  (As we are writing this blog, we have come to realization that we need to be taking more pictures- we have none!  Boooooo!)
I finally got to bed about 10 and not a moment to soon- Santa was coming for peet's sake!  I had the cookies and milk ready and a special treat for the reindeer.
Christmas day was spectacular (but again, no pictures.  Booooo!)  I got some cool stuff- Dino-opoly, hair chalk, mine craft books.  My favorite however is my iPod touch.  I now have the ability to text!  So far, I have mom, dad, Nana, Mr. Walker, Uncle Adam and Aunt Erin on speed text and have been a non-stop texting machine ever since.  Everyone is really enjoying it!

Everyone left on Friday morning and then it got cold!  We woke up to this on Saturday morning.....

We practically couldn't leave the house all day because it was too danged cold.  Mom did manage to get in a run- with two pairs of socks, two sets of running tights, two shirts and a jacket.  It was a little too close to Denver temperatures to make her happy but she soldiered on.

On Sunday, it was still cold and it was dad's turn to brave the cold for the sake of exercise.  Mom and I headed out around 10 and met some friends at Sabino Canyon and enjoyed a wonderful day of sunshine and learning how to skip rocks.

We hope everyone has a wonderful, safe New Year's!

A Real Shredder!

We are finally getting into the Christmas frenzy spirit around here.  We got our tree up the day after Thanksgiving but it continued to be 80 degrees.  That's warm even for Tucson this time of year.  Things finally cooled off this weekend with a great, cold, rainy Saturday and a beautiful, clear, cool Sunday.

I'm still in school for another week but it kind of seems like the whole month of December is just fun- we had our Christmas play at school last Friday.  The whole lower school (K-3) is up on stage but only the third graders get speaking parts.  Probably because we are so mature......Anyway, I was a crayon.  A green crayon.  I didn't exactly want to be a green crayon but it was better than being a teddy bear because teddy bears had to dance with and hug a boy.  Blech.  I did awesomely well- spoke my lines clearly and loudly and ended up having a good time.  My two best friends were crayons too- Claire was pink and Lily was yellow so that helped some too.

Then last week, our class Christmas party was on Wednesday afternoon.  That was totally fun with charades and popcorn and glitter.  I had glitter everywhere and now, mom's car has glitter everywhere.

She pulled me away from my party a little early because I had a doctor's appointment.  This was actually supposed to be my 8 year old check up, just a little late.  Sadly, I'm no longer in the 99th percentile for height.  I'm only in the 82nd.  Mom was a little disappointed in that but what can you do?

This past Friday, we headed up to the fancy mall for dinner, snow fall and the Apple store to buy dad's birthday present, the iPhone 6.  We learned our lesson from last year and didn't look up into the snow.  It was all and all a great time.

Saturday was the cold and rainy day so we spent most of it inside.  Mom and I did venture out in the afternoon for a Christmas party from mom's work.  At first, I really did not want to go because it sounded boring, insert eye roll here.  But, turns out there were other kids my age and a cat named Steve who was pretty tolerant of being chased and petted.  We also got to decorate gingerbread cookies, which involved sugar.  So you know that was good thing.  I ended up having a good time.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  Mom's friend Edy (who is a hard core, great mountain biker) has started a business teaching riding skills.  Mom signed my up for her very first class which was Sunday morning.  At first, I really did not want to because it sounded boring, insert eye roll here.  (Mom thinks we are going through a new phase here.)  I even started with the crying over this one.  Surprise, surprise, I ended up having a great time.  We rode through mud puddles, over rocks, down some pretty steep hills.   My friend Madeline took the class with me and by the end, we were proclaimed "Official Shredders".  I even have the muddy back to prove it.  It was totally awesome!

In the afternoon, Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue took us out to lunch.  Mom and dad are still full.  We spent a quiet evening with dad and I playing Skylanders and mom frantically doing all her Christmas shopping from the comfort of the couch.  Gotta beat those shipping deadlines you know!
Hope everyone has a wonderful week before Christmas!