Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

This year we stayed in Kansas for Christmas again. On Monday and Tuesday before the break my friend's little girl came over to play. She arrived at 7:30 a.m. and was there until after 5 both days, so she and Hannah wore each other out having a good time.  Christmas Eve we bought pizza, sang carols, watched Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and then opened about 3 presents each. Brian let Hannah help wrap my gifts and I love how she wrote on my presents so I would know that they were from her.    After we opened some presents and cleaned up the house, we left Santa some Oreo cookies and some fruit snacks and then we wrote him a letter. Hannah was adamant that since we didn't have a chimney he was going to have to come through the back yard and come in the door from the patio. We set out the cookies and got ready to go upstairs and then she STOLE one of Santa's cookies for herself. He forgave her though and stopped anyway. Here is the letter we ...

We are ready for Christmas. Hannah helped me decorate this year. She also helped me make gingerbread cookies where she rolled the dough herself. The tree is up and trimmed. We went with a real one this year. They are so much cheaper in Kansas than they were in Utah, which we find odd. This beauty is 8' tall and sturdy enough for more of our ornaments then the artificial one we used to have was. New presents keep appearing from family every day. Hannah finds them, counts them, and sorts them, just like I taught her. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care. Brian and I are the snow people and Hannah is the little bear.

I presented at the Literacy Research Conference in Florida this past week. We all went. I mostly did conference activities but Brian and Hannah had a good time on the beach and in the pool. I did spend some time building a sandcastle with Hannah in the late afternoon on the last day of the conference. The weather was great: 80 degrees. Some light rain in the evening but nothing that spoiled the trip. We flew two, 2-hour flights. One to Atlanta and the other to Ft. Lauderdale. We took the same way back, but in reverse. We rented a car and drove it across the Florida peninsula through Alligator Alley and the Seminole Reservation. There were these great signs with panthers on them that were like the deer watch signs that I am used to. They were offset yellow squares with the outline of a cat. It's always hard to make a trip right at the end of the semester and right before the holidays, but we did alright. Here are some pictures from our lone hour all together on the beach. ...

This year marked our second Thanksgiving in Kansas. We will start our third year here in January. I got up early and watched the parade from the comfort of my bedroom. My favorite balloon was the Hello Kitty flying the plane. I could swear they had something similar last year.  When we were all up, Hannah and I made some little foam turkeys.  I asked her what she, Brian and I were thankful for and she told me what to write. I daresay she nailed it.   Mine: Brian's: Hannah's:  I gave her the leftover pieces and told her she could make whatever she wanted. Here is her creation. I think it is very modern.  For dinner I made an 18 pound turkey. (We enjoy leftover turkey tremendously.) Only about a pound of turkey is shown here on our platter. I also made rolls, vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a pumpkin pie.  Hannah took a nap late and so she slept through the Thanksgiving meal. When she woke up she ate. Brian w...

On Mondays Brian has a class so I get to hang out with Hannah for a bit. We stay pretty close to campus usually. Even though it was cold, she wanted to go get some ice cream, so we did. When we got done, I cleaned up to leave and she protested. "Mommy, we have to sit here and talk about my life, " she said.  So I asked her about her life and she told me about some trouble she was having with a toy shopping cart. The wheel came off, but she had a plan to fix it. I think it is so funny that she wants to "sit and talk about her life." She does have an interesting life.  Here's where we went grocery shopping. I unloaded the sacks into the garage and then told her if she wanted to help me carry them, she could. Here are all the sacks she carried. At the same time even. What a good helper.

So the primary children's program at church is always the last Sunday of the month and so the practice for it is always the last Saturday. This makes having a party for Hannah a challenge while we live here and while people at church are the only ones I know with kids her age. So I thought I would try something different this year and throw the party the week after her birthday. I invited 6 kids and 4 came, so that worked out well. The problem was the Hannah had Trunk or Treat and her birthday last week end and then Halloween and her party this weekend and she was very wound up. I don't know that I would do this again. My new plan is to retire from parties for a while and see if I want to take it up again later. But here are some of the photos. 

Hannah reprised her costume as Dorothy. She brought her little dog too, to Trick or Treat. All week we had great warm weather and then today it never got higher than 45 degrees. Brian's camera wasn't set right for the dark so the pictures during candy gathering are not very clear. When we got home I showed Hannah the joys of counting and sorting her candy. She took to it like a duck to water. It made me so proud. Her favorite treat was actually a bag of pumpkin and bat shaped pretzels. While we made dinner spooks came to our house and we gave them treats. Hannah actually took up the job of answering the door and giving out the treats. She liked that just as well as collecting them herself.