New Year, New 'Do

Jeff and the kids are still out of school, so I had the luxury of a morning to myself. I really needed it! In case you don't know, I'm getting over having shingles. Fortunately, I had a pretty mild case, but it has still been painful and exhausting. After sleeping in until almost 9:00 this morning (!), I spent several hours in the salon. I've been pretty of tired of dealing with long hair, so I got it cut shorter than it's been in years. I didn't get a good picture, but you can see it's about chin-length.

After my appointment, it was Ashley's turn. She's never had a real haircut before, just an occasional trim by me. I have been hesitant to get it cut because of those cute little curls on the end, but it was time. It's been getting so tangled lately.

She did great! Both of my kids have been superstars when it comes to getting haircuts. Ashley was thrilled to sit in the little fire engine and watch herself in all the mirrors. I had to post this video of the little diva. I have no idea what she was singing (she often makes up songs), but her expressions are priceless. Try to ignore the toddler screaming in the background:

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Build-A-Bear

Renee got all of the kids gift certificates to Build-A-Bear for Christmas, so we all went to the mall on Saturday morning. We went early to beat the mad, post-Christmas rush. The kids had a good time and were reasonably well-behaved.

Wrapping Up Christmas 2009

Santa once again found our house on Christmas Eve! Santa doesn't wrap gifts at our house so the kids wake up and find everything out and ready to play with. Santa even played a game of bowling on Nathan's Wii just to test it out.

After opening gifts at home, we headed to Mom and Dad's for the Fischer Family Christmas. The Johnsons were home this year, and we were all thankful for that.

Renee has finally accepted the fact that she lives in a cold climate, so she bought a heavy-duty parka, some warm boots, and even asked for a Snuggie for Christmas (for real this time!)

Merry Christmas!

Flarpy Christmas!

We had our annual Christmas get-together last night with the Krebs and the Stanisors. After a good meal prepared by Missy, the kids opened their presents from each other. By far, the hit of the night with the 6 to 7 year olds was the "Flarp!" from the Krebs. If you don't know what Flarp is, a video is worth a thousand words

And here's Grace aloofly looking like a teenager, though she did get in on some of the Flarp-ing action as well.

The little girls were thrilled with their matching dresses from the Stanisors.

When the Saints Go Marching In

Nathan is playing basketball at Immanuel again this year. His team is called the Saints, and they already show much improvement from last year! Nate has not technically scored a goal yet, but he thinks he scored when he rebounded and shot after his teammate had already made a goal. He was also fouled on a legitimate attempt and made both his free throws. Go Saints!

Grand Finale

Ashley had her Christmas program at preschool today. She stood on the front row looking very cute (if I do say so myself) in her red Christmas dress. This was perhaps our last program at 2nd Presbyterian, and my, have we had some memories.

It might surprise you, but Papa has always been the best at tying bows.

After a few minutes of taking in the crowd and the paparazzi-like camera flashes, Ashley started performing. I couldn't hear her from where I was sitting, so I'm not sure how loud she was actually singing, but her expressive gestures made me think she was really into it!

Peace!

Hey, Santa!

We went to the annual Christmas parade and capitol lighting on Saturday with Mom, Dad, and Abby. It was freezing! I don't remember it ever being that cold.

Dad in his Carhart coveralls. Like I said, it was cold!

I won't even pretend to know what this has to do with Christmas!


One of the highlights of the night was definitely the cookies and hot chocolate.

After the lighting and fireworks, we went inside to see St. Nick.

I get both kids to look at the camera and smile - at the same time - and Santa's looking off somewhere else!

Tis the Season...

...to Elf Yourself. My kids' holidays would not be complete if they didn't see themselves dancing as elves. We made a couple this year:

Where did November go?

Before I start getting nasty comments about my lack of posting, I thought that I would catch up on November. Since I was out of town for the first half of the month, I have been working like a dog to catch up on everything at work for the last two weeks. Also, since I was not on call much at all in November, I'll be spending most of December on the call rotation. (It's been nice knowing everyone...I'll catch up again in 2010!)

As a result of my busyness, I'm dreadfully behind on my Christmas shopping. I have made a dent in my list today and plan to really hit it hard on Monday. I just got home from a quick trip to K-Mart. Yes, I know it's kind of a ghetto store, but they had a certain *undisclosed item* on sale that I'm getting someone for Christmas. I pulled up to the store at about 8pm, and the parking lot was packed! I thought that I would go on inside just to see how bad the lines were at the checkout, and they were surprisingly short. Confused, I wandered back to the *undisclosed department* to see if they had my *undisclosed item*. I found the crowd! Apparently this was the last night to pick up your layaway, so there was a really long line in the back of the store. I overheard a woman say that she was in line for an hour and forty minutes to get her stuff! Luckily, they had what I came for in stock, so I made my purchase and was on my way.

Before I get started wrapping my purchases, I will put a few belated Thanksgiving pictures on here. Unfortunately, neither the Stacys or the Johnsons (the Pennsylvania Johnsons, that is) were home this year, but we had a good time with Mom, Dad, and our almost-family (the Arkansas Johnsons, Krebs, and Stanisors).

And finally, here's a couple of pictures from Nathan's Thanksgiving program. The first one is with his friend Luke. Nathan was really irritated that his class had to be the pilgrims. Indians are way cooler!