Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from December! (and Brad & me, too!) Here is December standing by the Christmas tree on Christmas Day. She's wearing her Christmas outfit that I absolutely LOVE! It makes me sad that she won't be able to wear it very often, because it's my favorite outfit of hers...hopefully I can find another one for next year!

One of the things December had on her Christmas list was a magnadoodle, and she got two! This one is from Uncle Jeff, Auntie Erin, and Caden. The other one is from Grammie and Grandpa Jones. We'll keep one in the car for travelling and the other one at home. As you can see, she is VERY fond of the magnadoodle!

I love this look on her face -- she is looking at the two poodles that came for Christmas with Brad's Uncle Don and Aunt Trudy.

The poodles were really quite good with the kids! December absolutely LOVED the "oggie"s (=doggy).

Here she is feeding Tika, the black poodle, a doggie treat

Eating Christmas brunch...

Christmas was very full and very fun! As you can tell, we arrived safely. Thank you for your prayers! The drive was really loooong. We left around 5:00pm on Thursday and didn't stop until 11:45pm the following night. We hit our worst weather as we drove through the night -- the roads were completely white, and there was a snowstorm all around. We did stop for about an hour in a parking lot in the wee hours of the morning, to sleep for a few minutes and in the hopes that the storm would lighten. During much of Friday, the sun was shining, and though the roads were still white in many places, we also had clear roads, too! I got to drive through some beautiful mountainous country with the sun sparkling on the snow, and it was absolutely gorgeous! We arrived late at night, completely exhausted, but Dad and Debbie thankfully had nice warm beds waiting for us...though we had to wait to use them because December woke up and decided it was play time, not sleep time.

The day after we arrived, the extended family started to arrive, too, and the house became full and fun! We like it when everyone is here because there is always something to do and people to do it with. We played lots of games together and built puzzles and talked, etc. Christmas with a full house is tons of fun!

Off to the Zoo

We went to the Wild Animal Park/zoo today! There is my English friend Naomi on the left with Noah in the stroller, and the three other children besides December are Ann's children. She's Canadian, too!

The zookeepers were doing a Keeper Talk on the Caracal, a small wild cat with long tufts on its ears. It's a very neat animal, although it did hiss and get angry a couple of times during the talk.

A gorilla -- or "min-keeee" (= monkey), according to December. Almost every animal she saw after the gorillas was promptly named "Min-keeee." She just learned how to say monkey yesterday, so I think that was part of her exuberance.

A meerkat, or "Meowww, meoww" according to December. I tried to explain that this wasn't a kitty, it was a meerkat, but since I was saying "meer-CAT" in my explanation of what it was, I think the distinction got lost, and December didn't really get the difference.

December loves her monkeys! She wanted to sit in this monkey's lap on the car.

The zoo made me laugh today. I find it a bit funny that even though this is the last place to find Christmas-like weather, everyone still decorates for Christmas with snowmen, snowflakes, and anything Christmasy and snowy. So, at the zoo, there were Christmas lights all around, with lit-up plastic snowmen and various zoo animals. Also, there was a hill that you could go sledding on! Hehee...they bring in snow (or create snow), and lay it on this tiny little hill, put haybales around it (as guard rails for the kids), and let the kids go at it! It made me laugh. All these kids sliding down this teeny little patch of white ice (man-made snow never turns out as good as God-made snow) surrounded by bales of hay. I should have taken a picture of how crazy-looking it was :). It made me laugh.

We leave tomorrow! I should really be packing right now, or moving every last item out of the kitchen (the cockroach-sprayer people are going to come and vanquish all of the nasty cockroaches tomorrow, and we're not allowed to come back in the apartment for at least four hours). So we won't really be able to come back into the apartment much before we leave for our trip. That means that everything has to be done by the end of tonight! If you think of us, please pray for us...there is forcasted snowy weather for the roads we'll be encountering. I'm especially worried about the roads during the middle of the night. Mixing bad roads with a sleep-deprived driver creates a deadly combination!

A Great Studying Helper

Here's December helping Daddy study Hebrew flashcards.

Here's December distracting Daddy from studying Hebrew flashcards

December ringing the Christmas bell we have hanging on our doorknob...only she likes to rip it off the door and ring it by herself

Spying on our neighbor, who has just arrived home

December is getting more insistent when she wants something. Lately if she wants you to do something, like put in a Baby Einstein movie, she'll get the movie, bring it to you, then grab your hand and pull you toward the dvd player. For the past couple of months, we have been trying to get December to sit with us during church. We begin the service with her seated between us, and we make her last for as long as we can, and then we take her to nursery when she starts yelling out loud for the fun of it and scrambling under the pews. Yesterday, though, even before the service started, she took my hand and started pulling me toward the direction of the nursery, saying "Djo! Djo!" (which means, "Toys! Toys!"). She really wanted to go play in the nursery! What happened to my little girl who would scream and fake-cry when Brad and I picked her up from her nursery time, as though punishing us for abandoning her there?!?

Brad has three exams this week -- the first one starting tomorrow. He says his ones on Wednesday and Thursday will be his hardest ones, one of which is Hebrew. As soon as he gets home from his one on Thursday (around supper time), we leave for our looong trek toward the colder places. :)

Playing a Christmas Song

For the past few days, December has really loved to sit and play at the piano.

Here she is trying to play, "What Child Is This?"

We watched Samuel again today while his parents went for a dentist appointment...the babies wanted to dance (again, December wanted this more than Samuel), so it was pretty cute. There wasn't even any music playing this time! December has really been into Ring Around the Rosie since Mom taught it to her, so I think that's what she's trying to do with Samuel here.

Tonight one of the seminary couples in our apartment complex is having a Christmas party, so we're going to go to that, which will be fun!