Making sugar cookies

I was really craving sugar cookies after church one Sunday and I had recently bought some Christmas themed cookie cutters. So, while Mina was napping I made up some dough and put it in the fridge to chill. After she got up I rolled some dough out and summoned Mina to come help me cute the cookies out. She thought it was pretty cool and was a very good help. That is, until she discovered the cookie dough was edible and it tasted really good. I couldn't stop her from sneaking pieces to eat after that. Haha. She took a little break to play some learning games on the ipod as they baked and then enjoyed the cooked cookies just as much as the dough. (Please excuse how unattractive I look in these photos. Just look at Mina. She's the cute one.)

Christmas parties

Our neighborhood office is really good at throwing parties for the residents. We wish they were as enthusiastic about helping us out regarding living arrangements as they are about throwing parties, but oh well. They threw a wonderful holiday party early in December complete with horse drawn carriage rides. Mina really loves animals so she was thrilled to see the horses stroll on by. She was also thrilled to see the fire trucks pass by. In fact, she kept trying to run into the street after them. Dru had to continually run after her to bring her back to the sidewalk. We got to ride in one of the carriages and it was pretty neat. Mina actually sat still for the ride. Then we made our way inside to the kid craft room and Mina made a Santa Claus slap bracelet. She really loved it and didn't ever try to take it off. She actually kept giving Santa kisses. We drank hot chocolate, ate hot dogs and cookies and chatted with a few friends. Santa Claus was there for children to visit and have pictures taken with, but the line was ridiculously long. Luckily the next weekend was the ward party and Santa would be making an appearance there as well. It was really cold and windy so we ended up not staying for very long, but we enjoyed our time there.

The next weekend we got up early to attend our ward's Christmas party. It started at 8:30 in the morning. Mina sleeps until 9 or later most days, so we had to wake her up to go. We all went in our pajamas. We started the party off by decorating sugar cookies. Mina just wanted to eat the decorations, but Dru helped her to get the idea of what to do. Her cookies turned out pretty cute. We then made some paper snowflakes, ate breakfast and then waited in line to see Santa. The night before we had gone to Bass Pro Shop where they were doing free pictures with Santa. We thought Mina was going to enjoy it, but she proved us wrong. She had been so obsessed with Santa the weeks prior, so we just thought she'd like seeing the "real thing." We sat her on his lap and she was okay until the photographer told us to get out of the picture and then she freaked out. So, at the ward party, she sat on the steps of the stage waiting her turn and she looked as if she was going to be okay sitting on this Santa's lap. But, as soon as her turn came and we walked her up there, she started screaming! She didn't even want to look at him. Oh well. She got a bag of goodies and as soon as she calmed down, she lay down in the middle of the floor to enjoy a Hershey kiss. What a goofball. We had a lot of fun despite the Santa experience.

Snow in Maryland

We got our first snow in Maryland early in December. As soon as I noticed it was snowing, I got Mina all bundled up and took her outside. She was excited to go outside, but was even more thrilled about the snow. It snowed quite a bit in Texas last winter at one point, but Mina was so sick then and she didn't enjoy it at all. It was fun to watch her enjoy this first snow, but it stopped literally the moment we came back inside. Oh well. She was so curious and tried to explore everywhere, from the swings to the backyard, the trees and to the slide.

A few weeks later we got another little snow storm. This one produced a bit more snow and was much more fun to play in. Mina had a lot of fun experimenting with the snow. She kept hitting our neighbors' inflatable Santa and loved when the snow fell off him. She of course ventured down to the slides. It's never a complete trip outside unless we visit the swings and the slides. Mina's face got so wet and cold, as did her hands. I don't know how long she would have stayed out there if we didn't make her come in. She loves being outside no matter what.

She kept looking through the holes in the tube connected to the slides. If I came over to peek in at her she would push snow out of them at me and laugh. She thinks she's so funny. We also decided to blow some bubbles outside in the freezing weather. It was really cool because the bubbles froze. We could actually bounce them off of our hands and they didn't pop! They also looked really cool when they did pop. We're hoping to get a little more snow before the end of winter, but we hear it doesn't actually snow all the much here. I think Dru is the most disappointed about that, though with Mina's new love of the snow I'm sure she is, too.