A snow day with no snow...

Only in Seattle would they cancel school for a snow day, and then have no snow fall. Oh well, I got a ton done. I finished all of my Christmas cards...so they should be out soon! I also decided to make a gingerbread house from scratch, so we made the dough this morning. Baked the pieces this afternoon, and then decorated it tonight. It was very fun.

I remember we always had a gingerbread house at our house, and it was so fun to decorate, my mom had amazing skills. Then on Christmas...all the cousins would sit around the table and devour it. Good times...

Here we are with our masterpiece. Emma is into cheesy smiles right now, isn't she lovely. :)

The Reckling Elves (Disco-Style)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Goofy Emma...

Here is just a silly picture of Emma. One of the cousins had these glasses, and Emma thinks that they are so funny! Shane had them on and was making Emma laugh, but as soon as I pulled out the camera, he took them off. I'll still try to get a shot of it, but it might take some of my stealth moves to get it.

Bellevue Botanical Gardens

On Saturday night we went with Shane's family to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. It's so beautiful. They design lights into the shapes of flowers, trees and animals. It's a close second to temple square, but I still so miss going to Salt Lake. I remember my first few years away from Utah was so hard! I felt like it wasn't even Christmas if we didn't go to temple square. 15 years later, and I still miss it. :) I told Shane someday I want to do a little temple square weekend away. Fly down, stay the night, have dinner and enjoy the lights. It would be so fun!

Anyway, at the gardens it started to snow, which is crazy for Seattle. It was so fun to be there with everyone, although I spent most of the night trying to figure out how to take a picture of lights with my camera. I never did figure it out, but here are some pictures.

Letter to Santa...

Tonight, while Shane was at work we decided to bake some treats and write a letter to Santa. We had some great stickers from the Target One-spot (I love that place). I think that's where Santa got most of his stocking stuffers for Emma this year. :) Emma's still requesting a Wall-e toy for Christmas. She decorated her letter with stickers and with pictures of Wall-e and Eva. Very cute. We'll take it to the special post office at Macy's tomorrow! Can't wait!

Now we're going to taste the new recipe we found for banana bread, out of the ward cookbook (thanks Amy!). It smells yummy! Emma is watching Frosty on TV while we bake...it's been quite a relaxing evening. :)

Peppermint Emma

Here's full shot of Emma's Tutu dress. The tights really make the outfit. :)

Last one, I promise!

I left my camera at my mom's and finally got it back today, so I'm trying to catch up on lost time, hence all the posts. Tonight was our ward's Christmas party. We had so much fun, and I made this Christmas tutu for Emma. I haven't had time to sell anything online lately, and thought I at least needed to make one for Emma to have at Christmas time. It's a little overkill, but she looked cute. It was her first time on Santa's lap, and she thought it was so cool. She asked him for a WALL-E toy and movie. We'll see if she's good enough for Santa to bring it to her. Here she is with her little friend from church, Maggie. They both looked so cute!