Tree away...

As much as I always hated taking down the Christmas tree, and the rest of the decorations, I REALLY hate taking them down now. I decided though, that maybe if we actually all got involved, and tried to make a game of things, that it might be a little more fun, than just putting it all away at night, and POOF the next day, no decorations.

Granted, I really didn't anticipate how this would affect the cleaning up time-line, but it was fun regardless.

Amara continued to be infatuated with the beads, so it was a no brainer for her to help with those. We also were very ornament conscious this year, so she couldn't hurt anything and enjoyed putting them away (as she has learned to do in her music and gym classes also).

We all miss the beauty and whimsy of the tree and decorations, but we hope that with the anticipation of putting it back up next year and the 6 weeks of so a year we get to enjoy it, it will be all the more special when it comes around.

Aunt Kristin's Christmas

After the festivities of Christmas morning at home and Christmas afternoon with the cousins, we got together with E's family at Aunt Kristin/ soon to be Uncle Jim's house.

We all had a great time watching the dogs play, opening presents, and watching a beautiful snow lightly fall--which actually ended up being the beginning of a steady amount of snow around these parts.

Among the ENORMOUS amount of amazing and wonderful presents she received were a giant bear, Elmo chair and a drum--like I said, there were TOO many to list, but those are some of the favorites, even now--which almost a month later, is kind of a record! I'm pretty sure that mallet to the candy drum Unle Matt/ Aunt Steph got her has barely left her hand--and certainly helped her cut her bottom eye tooth, so BONUS!

Fun w/ Grandma & Grandpa

Amara spends a TON of time at Grandma & Grandpa Jahn's house and has a TON of fun there too! Especially after dad is done for the busy season, she gets them both all to herself, at least part of most days.

She loves the dogs, and Smoky particularly loves her back. Max is fine with her--but she and Smoke have a bond it seems. That dog, I swear--he lets her do ANYTHING to him! When she was little, Smoke would even let her pull herself up on his FACE! no kidding!

She also gets to do a lot of 'day-to-day' house stuff at mom and dads. She loves exploring and finding things, and when she does--she finds uses that suit HER needs best. Case in point, I believe this gray doggie bed used to be Ilys. She found it, and of course, it's a favorite spot now.

In addition to stuff "around" the house--she of course is outside 90% of the time, as weather allows. On this particular day (apparently) to rake leaves, grandma decided to dress her either as barney, a teletubby, or an oompah-loompah, i can't decide which...but it's apparently great for raking leaves!

Mommy's coat

My mom has lovingly saved a TON of things from my childhood. One of the most notable items has to be my "pink fur coat." Although I clearly don't "remember" wearing the coat firsthand, since I was about 18 months old, I have seen pictures of me in the coat, as well as I've seen it hanging in mom's attic since I was old enough to remember.

Being a June baby myself, most of my old clothes seem to fit Amara perfectly with the correct seasons--so, as mom was digging out holiday decorations, she came across the coat.

It was SO soft and so broke in, she immediately took to it!

I'm not sure how much she wears it at Grandma's, but it was really sweet to see her in it, regardless. I'm so glad that mom saved these things for me and that we have this opportunity to share the past and the future too!

Suncatcher craft

One of the sweetest gifts ever, was that Eric decided to give me a pie plate--designed and decorated by he and Amara; however, I guess pie plates aren't the "most commonly requested" item, so it had to be ordered.

In the meantime, Eric thought of an ingenious way to "relay the present" to me--by doing a suncatcher craft (which he and Amara sneakily did at Grandma's house) and then giving me a beautiful heartstonewear (sp?) star motif pie pan.

Mom took these great shots of the first "daddy-daughter craft event" which I'm sure won't be the last, because I heard after-the-fact, how much fun they had...

...so now...we wait on the pie pan to come into the ceramics store, then we all go paint together. I have no idea how the finished project will turn out, but I promise to show--and in the meantime (and for always) I have my first craft project, a tiny plastic bee suncatcher, lovingly hand-painted by Amara and daddy to hang in my car.

Awwwwww.

Decorating cookies

To get ready for our Christmas with the Youngs, at Aunt Kristin's house, we decided to make some sugar cookies. Dad loves Grandma Harmon's sugar cookie recipe, so we whipped up a batch and let them cool.

Amara got started on the decorating. She didn't really care much for the icing part, but REALLY enjoyed shaking the colored sugar on them. By the end of the decorating escapade, Amara was decorating like a champ, and I think was genuinely dissapointed that all the cookies were iced and decorated. Guess this will be our new seasonal favorite--Valentines day is only 6 weeks away after all :)

Christmas afternoon with the cousins

Amara has 3 cousins, our nephews--Kalvin, Jackson & Garhett, or as she calls them "K, Jax, and G." After they'd had Christmas at their house, (and we at ours) we all went to the Jahns' for their Christmas together.

Amara really loves those boys and we knew she'd have fun watching them open and play with their gadgets, which she of course did. They were such a whirlwind of trucks, games, paper, etc. that I think she didn't know who to watch first!

She ended up with G's new helmut on, which was pretty funny in itself...then they all went into the basement to play with some new toys and old. ALSO--I didn't get a picture of it, but Jackson was playing with one of the helicopters we got him in the family room. Amara thought it was clearly the funniest thing she'd ever seen--so, the next day, dad had his charged up and ready for her--and has been entertaining Amara with it every day since then.