holiday craze

 breakfast with Santa. this year it was Ruby who was terrified of Santa and refused to pose with him while Luci enjoyed letting Santa know that she really wanted a new lunchbox for Christmas

 Luci showing off her new scooter from Paw-Paw

 and Ruby chilling in her new red wagon, also courtesy of Paw-Paw

 Mimi and Luci made lots of tasty treats as they've done in previous years

 Santa's Little Helper

 Luci's new lunchbox that Santa (Uncle Mark) brought on Christmas Day

 Ruby had a grand time playing with the ribbons

 Luci having fun with Poppi, playing with one of her favorite new toys, a princess CD player and read-along books.  she will sit for long stretches of time listening to stories and playing her new music - disney tunes and silly songs.

 Ruby bangs the drums, one of her favorite new toys, with Uncle Mark

both girls caught in a moment of 'playing together' (aside - me in the background donning mouse ears.  the BIG gift this year is a trip in March to Disney World.  this trip was planned by Kai along with my parents, who will be accompanying us and was a total surprise to me and the girls)

and then Ruby tackles Luci..... 

 one night Kai and my brother made us an Asian feast - noodle soup, summer rolls and dumplings - it was delicious and gave us this rare glimpse of my brother cooking!

 my mom got the girls these matching pajamas - for some reason, they seem to inspire silliness

it always takes awhile to recover from the mayhem that is the holiday season.  now that over a month's gone by, i feel ready to tackle christmas 2012.  the girls were very blessed this year to be able to see all of their grandparents during the holidays.  mimi, poppi and uncle mark came to town for a week long visit.  and kai's father, joseph, has moved to the area and stepped in during his 1st few days in town to babysit luci who had step throat.  unfortunately, he then got pretty sick himself.  the next victim was kai.  and although our holidays were plagued with a bit of sickness, we still had lots of fun and made many good memories.