Merry Christmas to all

It has been a very busy week here at the Lindsay house!

Here are some pre-Christmas highlights.

The week started with our first snowfall of the season. It continued snowing a little bit each day and now have about 6 inches on the ground. Here's the view from the back deck. (You can see Amanda's school on the far left.)


We made quite a few batches of these easy chocolate covered pretzels. In addition to the melted Rolo's over mini pretzels, I tried using the new candy cane Hershey kisses. They are fantastic... and very addicting! We also made gingerbread men and Russian teacakes.


Here are the girls, modeling their new Hello Kitty pajamas from Kimmie and Eliana.

Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with Dave's family on the north shore. Liam received this colorful tent and matching tunnel from one of the cousins. Liam is not fond of it at all. In fact, he seems to have the same phobia of tunnels that his Mama used to have, but the girls sure have been having fun playing with it!

Here's a shot of all three of them, taken on Christmas Eve morning. Amanda couldn't find her navy blue nighthat from Grandma Jo and had to wear her "too small" hat instead, which she wasn't too pleased about. I love Liam's little green and red Santa PJ's, also from Kimmie and Eliana.

This morning we had to make plain old sugar cookies instead of cut-out cookies because I realized I had left my Christmas cookie cutters at someone's house. We made do and decorated them with festive red and green frosting and plenty of sprinkles. We were done in no time, so this may have to become a tradition!

After an afternoon frolic in the snow, which included making a snow fort and a secret kingdom full of intricate paths, we came back inside and opened all of the out-of-state gifts.

I was surprised that Liam really got into the act! He loved the wrapping paper, although his sisters usually took the gift away from him and finished themselves because they were too impatient.

He loved all of the toys with wheels, but his hands-down favorite was the ride on fire truck from Grandpa Clint and Grandma Reda.


The girls were absolutely delighted with the gigantic dollhouse mansion from Grandma Jo and Uncle Josh's family. It came with furniture and a family of five: a mother, father, big sister, and twin babies. The girls immediatly decided that the big sister would be named Bridget and the babies were Tommy and Ashlyn. They played with the dollhouse all night long.


Before long, Liam was already riding his fire truck in Evil Kinevil fashion, putting both feet up underneath the handlebars.


We finished the night by opening one more present: the game of Perfection. (Dave and I both had Superfection when we were kids, but we found out that they don't make it anymore.) As it turns out, the girls LOVED it!!

After quite a few rounds of this, we all cuddled on the couch as Amanda read "The Night Before Christmas" to us.

At one point, Amanda said,"Daddy, did you forget what time it is? Shouldn't we be getting to bed now?" She was so afraid that if she wasn't sound asleep in bed, Santa would fly on by.

As we finally tucked them into bed and did our usual 'Special Day' summary of the day's events, I was about to sing the two lullabies which signal the end of the bedtime routine. Before I could even start, Amanda said,"Mama, maybe we should just skip the lullabies tonight."

I have never seen anyone so eager to go to sleep!

Thanks to the entire Wentz family for all of the gifts! There wasn't a single thing the kids didn't love!

I'll end this with a short video of Liam. He turned 11 months old on Thursday, rounding the corner toward his first birthday. Still no crawling or walking... just lots of scooting.