Cookies Full of Cheer

Hi Everyone,


We've been busy preparing to have a festive Christmas at our house. My work has been insane since the week of Thanksgiving with a very huge audit. Today we finally hit the mark we needed to hit for everyone to be granted their Christmas leave, which has made for a very happy day at work.

Unfortunately, this evening hasn't been quite as much fun due to Josie running a fever shortly after dinner. Hopefully she will be past the worst of it by Christmas. Fingers crossed!

Wim and I kept busy this past weekend doing all kinds of fun Christmasy things with Josie Dong Dong.

"I'm not so sure about this cookie-making thing."

After watching me roll out some dough and press shapes, Josie got in the swing of how to do it and was ready to roll out some dough herself.

After pressing shapes for the sugar cookies, we worked on the chocolate chip cookies.









We soon had racks full of cookies-- ready to decorate. Although, Josie Dong Dong thought they looked pretty good for eating without decorating.



"Cookies? What Cookies? I don't see any COOKIES."

"Oh, these cookies?"

"OK. I maybe I did notice these cookies."

"Oh No! I'm not planning to eat any of these . . .

giggle-giggle."

More giggling.

A lot more GIGGLING!

"HA! I got one! I got one. I got one of the COOKIES!"

I don't know if I have mentioned it before or not, but it is super hard to get good pictures of Josie. She will not sit still for me to take a picture or two and she gets fussy really quickly if she even suspects I am trying to get her to sit or stand somewhere 'special' for a picture.

I was hoping to get some pictures of her in front of the Christmas tree, but she was being her typical self. She did sit on the ottoman next to the tree.

"What is wrong with me sitting here Mommy?"
"OOOOooooo, these lights are really pretty!"

After her afternoon nap, Josie has a snack and since we made cookies I let her have one after she ate her fruit.

"Don't even try to tell me there aren't any cookies!"

"Mmmmmm!"

After her snack we took Josie for a little sled ride around the neighborhood on her new sled. Yea, Christmas is right around the corner, but like a lot of states, we got socked pretty good with some snow and wanted to make the most of it.

This is Wim pulling Josie on her sled on the street in front of our house.

On Sunday Wim decided to get some of his wrapping done. Much to his dismay, Josie Dong Dong didn't nap for very long and was quite interested in Daddy and his new 'task.'

If there is one thing Josie LOVES more than cookies it is watching either her Mommy or Daddy do 'tasks' and joining in to 'help.'




"What is Daddy doing? I need to investigate!"

"I can be a big help to you Daddy!"

"Daddy is talking to me in his funny Grumpy voice."

Hmmmm. I wonder what Wim is thinking in this picture as Josie continues to 'help' him and I continue to watch her 'help' and take pictures. Did I mention that he isn't all that into "wrapping?"

It's Almost Christmas and nothing is going to put a damper on this little girl's spirit!!!!

Preparing for Santa

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying all the festivities of the season. We are in full Christmas swing at our house. It is all Wim and I can do just to keep up with Gabrielle, Xavier, and Josie Dong Dong.

"Santa is going to bring me presents."

Last weekend was very busy for us. In addition to me working on Saturday (you just have to love federal audits being done at Christmas-time), we had lots of fun activities planned for the family to enjoy.

In between working on Saturday, Wim brought Josie to me and then we headed-off to Santa's Workshop party at our YMCA. Josie still was not interested in close and personal with Santa Claus or even Mrs. Santa Clause-- she wasn't even all that enthused about Mommy taking a few pictures of her with some cuddly Christmas Bears.

"I don't like these bears!"

Once we moved away from the obvious Kodak moment shots, Josie became much more curious about all the fun crafts that were all around her.

"I have a bunch of crayons and there is lots to color!"

"I get to decorate my own pine cone with glitter."

After some serious coloring, Josie moved on to making her very own sparkly pine cone ornament for our tree.











Josie and I also made some candy cane ornaments using fuzzy pipe cleaners and beads,

By the time we finished making candy cane ornaments AND Josie had munched down TWO real candy cane candies, she was in full swing and rearing to go!

"Christmas means candy and candy means YUMMY in my TUMMY!"

The next big fun craft was making a frosty, candy coated house. I think I managed to get Josie to place about a 1/4 of the candy on her house-- can you guess where the other 3/4 of the candy went?

After we finished hitting all the craft stations, we went into the story room to listen to the Polar Express. This proved to be much more complicated than most might expect. I think the majority of the kids at this reading were in the 2-3 year age range.

The first obstacle arouse when one little girl began exclaiming, "I want my Cheerios" over and over again. Her parents were frantically trying to find them.

Then several other little kids chimed in.

Then a couple kids decided to walk around the nice lady reading the story.

Then little Josie Dong Dong went up front, stood next to the lady reading, squatted, grabbed her
crotch, and gave me the 'potty' look.

Which brings us to the highlight of Santa's Christmas Workshop. . . . . .

"This is the best water table ever!!!!"

Later Saturday-night we all headed northward to enjoy a Winter Wonderland.

The kids were very excited about the abominable sized snowman.


Gabrielle and Xavier enjoyed some popcorn and took some time for Wim to take a picture of them in a festive holiday setting.

Meanwhile, Josie and I took a spin on the carousel. It was a very fast carousel. I had Josie snug tight with the seat belt and was wishing I had one on as well!


Josie was tired of waiting for people to load on the carousel and was getting fussy. Once we got going she loved it and wanted to go on it again-- but it was a bit too much of a free for all for me, so we called it good with one ride.

We also managed to fit in getting our Christmas Tree this weekend. Yes, I told you it was a packed weekend! Getting the tree was fun, but Xavier had pretty much had it with so much Christmas Cheer.

Wim Set-up the tree . . .

Gabrielle showed Josie how to water the tree and Josie re-paid her with some warm sisterly love.

On Sunday, we all decorated the tree.

Josie Dong Dong really worked up an appetite decorating the tree. Her appetite was well served with a yummy chocolate turtle and a chocolate covered jelly treat at snack time.

No time for comments on these pictures, too busy eating chocolate.

Then we were back to our usual weekly routine.

A tired Josie waking up in the morning.















A surprise shot of Gabrielle bringing Josie in for breakfast.

Josie Dong Dong calling Mommy at work today, during the snowstorm, to ask her when she is coming home to bake cookies.