Christmas Time

Lots going on with Christmas preparations underway. 

To start, a few of Tess' recent drawings:

A family portrait.  Gotta love the thousands of stairs up to our house.

Festive carolers, including a dog and kitty.

Tinkerbell and friends.

Drew's been creative too.  I was not happy about this.  Drew now knows the answer to:  "What do we color on?"  "Pa-pah."

A day with Nana & Papa.  Tess made cookies with Nana.  Drew loves playing Papa.

Tess finally got her birthday present from Nana & Papa.  And she was able to open fun doll clothes from Dipsy & Papa.

Last day of school, we attended a sing along at her preschool.  

The kids had fun with bells.

Dad's been home for a couple days and we are LOVING our time with him.  Ryan and Tess have been doing lots of projects, including making snowflakes and snowstorms.

Family outing to the Children's Christmas Pageant at the National Cathedral.  Tess' eyes were HUGE as we entered the immense church.  We could tell it made a huge impression on her.  The kids are invited to dress up and participate in the pageant, so there were lots cute angels, shepherds and animals running around.  Tess was having none of that, but she was an appreciative audience member.

Mary, Joseph & baby Jesus

Angels with the star.

Tess' favorite were the wisemen.  They were impressive.

Lots of cute cherubs all around.

Tess also loved the big animals which came to worship;

 some of which I don't really remember from the biblical version.

This is a really bad picture of a camel.

Tess enjoying from a safe distance.

After the cathedral, we headed over to see the temple lights.  

We arrived at sunset and it was cold, but beautiful.

We were a bit exhausted, but Tess is insatiable.  

We saw all the new exhibits in the visitors' center, and she kept asking for more.  

Luckily, we still have lots of time off with Dad for more fun.