Kyle the Camel

What to expect from a group of 3, 4, and 5 year old kids? One of Travis's friends who has a son that goes to the same pre-school said that the program from the previous year was so funny that he laughed through most of it. I think the thing that set him off was a little boy who fell over when he got too close to the edge of the step he was standing on. You'd have to know Brandon to understand.

I had no idea that the kids were going to have costumes, and even though it is hard to tell from the pictures, Kyle got to be a camel. Yup, a proud, happy camel came marching down the aisle, stayed nicely in line and sang like his daddy does ~ missing about half the words, but singing his little heart out none-the-less.

There must be something about pre-school Christmas programs that just invites moments that make you want to laugh, but leave you feeling like you will be forever damned if you do since you are in a church when they happen. You may have noticed that "Mary" is missing from the last picture. That is because she also had an accident, just not the kind that the little boy had that Brandon laughed at last year. That's all I will say about that.... poor thing. 

Dunker Tookies

Last year we celebrated Christmas in the Mandan House. Grannie came over to make the traditional pfefferneuse cookies that I love, and the triple batch of cappuccino crinkles that papa and Uncle Mark enjoy. 

When a 2 year old scoops cookie dough, regular sized cookies morph into dunker tookies, a.k.a. monster cookies.

This year found us repeating the tradition, with slightly different results. Instead of putting Ky in charge of scooping the cookie dough, we let him roll the pfefferneuse in the powdered sugar. We'll just say it is going to be a very long time until all the traces of his handy work are cleaned up. 

Last year my itty bitties were, well, still so itty bitty

 

 This year my itty bitties are not so itty bitty.

Great grandma's buns make me happy too, Emmie!

As hard as it is to believe, we had the first decent snow fall of the year this weekend. While Grannie and I finished baking and tackled the clean up, Travis took the kids out for some winter fun.

There were many exclamations of sadness as the afternoon wore on and the snowman slowly lost his face as he melted back into ordinary piles of snow. It is amazing how quickly sad itty bitties bounce back when offered freshly baked cookies!