White Christmas

We had such a fun week! A big snowstorm hit on Christams Eve and didn't stop until Saturday. We had so much celebrating Christmas and playing in the snow. Emma held her own little triathalon the weekend before Christmas- she went hardcore sledding down the driveway on Saturday, Ice skating on Sunday, and skiing on Monday. She had her first ski lesson and did pretty well. She is completely independent on the bunny hill, but when we would take the chairlift, the slope had a little too much incline (believe it or not, in Minnesota!) for her to snowplow very effectively so stopping became a bit of an issue. She loved the chairlift though and begged to graduate off the bunny slope. Her being in a lesson for 2 hours meant that I was able to ski, by myself, for the first time in a few years. So fun, even if I spent twice as much time on the chairlift as I did on the slope- we are in Minnesota, afterall. She was pretty wiped by lunchtime, but she met a little girl in the chalet and they talked it up over hot chocolate. They became quite competitive, and Emma wanted to show her up, so off we went back to the slopes. Unfortunately, this little girl had been skiing since 2 and was unnaturally good for her 4 years. Emma was very frustrated and would not let me help her. It did not end well. She slowly creeped over to the "magic carpet" which is a like a conveyor belt to get the kids up the bunny slope, and then fell on her belly on top of it, with her skis in the air. It took her up the hill like that, screaming, until I unclicked from skis, ran up the hill, and pulled her off. She was fine, of course, but in a puddle of tears. We called it a day. She has another lesson in 2 weeks, so hopefuly this incident will be forgotten.

Christmas was a blast. Having kids makes everything just so much more fun and magical. We trekked through the snow to Auntie Kris house for Christams Eve dinner and gift swap game. Then came home and left cookies for Santa. Christmas morning was spent at home, unwrapping and playing. The highlight was watching Emma play her new Wii dance game. Her favorite number is Cotton Eyed Joe- so






hilarious. The girl








obviously did not get her dance talent







from Mike or myself- she is pretty good. Then we spent the rest of the day at Papa and Nana's, again opening gifts and feasting on steak and lobster. Delish. A great week. Emma is off again this week and we have more snow fun planned up at the cabin- skiing, snow tubing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling. More pics to come!

FIVE

Emma is 5 years old today! Holy cow, how is it possible that I am mother to a 5 year old??? It sounds SO old to me. She has been waiting for this day for a long time. We threw her a big party last weekend. My good friend Chris (mom to 2 boys) is starting a party planning buisness and asked if she could do Emma's party to help her get started- and she was very excited to do a girly party for a change. Of course I said YES! We did a ballet party. We had a real ballerina come and teach a ballet class, the girls made and decorated thier own tutus, we decorated ballet ornaments, made snowman ballerinas crafts, and of course cupcakes and ice cream. We held the party at my parent's house because they had the perfect "studio" in the basement- a workout room with floor to cieling mirrors that they cleaned out to make room for the ballerinas. It was an explosion of pink everywhere and so, so cute. The girls were in awe of Lauren the ballerina teacher and listened very well for over 45 minutes. It was so adoreable. Emma had a great time and will remember this one for a long time to come. Today for her actual bday we are going ice skating and then she ordered up her favorite dinner (Halibut steaks!) from papa to cook for her bday dinner. She is really growing up. Happy birthday my sweet girl.

We went sledding the other day at the park and the girls had a blast. I was amazed at how brave they both were, especially Abby shouting "Faster, Faster!" as we flew down the hill. The girls then played on the playground and pretended the slide was a luge. It was pretty funny- the landing looked a little rough to me, but the both did it over and over again, so I guess it didn't hurt! Then we went to a coffee shop and warmed up with hot cocoa. Next up, ice skating with daddy tomorrow and downhill skiing lesson on Monday! Emma is out of school for 2 weeks so we are staying busy in the snow!