Cookie Baking

We all had fun baking cookies at Grandma Debbie's house.

Ally even rolled out the dough.

Then we showed her how to flour the dough and the cutter.

Ally really enjoyed played in the flour - even her feet were covered.

Then the decorating started.

Ally soon figured out how much fun it was to mess around with the sprinkles (AKA "jimmies")

And she loved eating the sprinkles.

We were not sure how she would like eating the actual cookie, but she ended up eating all but 1 point of this star.

Christmas Eve 2008

Sorry the posts are a bit out of order. We just arrived back home today from a week away. Ally was a trooper, mama and mommy and Aunt Beth ( who traveled with us) are exhausted!

Christmas Eve was a pretty action packed day. We started with a formal family portrait. It came out pretty well - we were all smiling (all 6 of us!) I'm excited to get the print in a few weeks. After that we went to a classic dive/diner for lunch, at Poppy Dave's request. I've heard about this place for years, but had never been. Jimm.y John.s it has trains - lots of trains and the thing to eat is hot dogs and french fries. All morning I kept telling Ally we were going to get fries and see trains. She was pretty excited. It was a really neat place.

Poppy showing Ally the main display case.

There is even a track at eye level while you are eating - see the engine at Poppy's head?

Debbie and I ate at a small booth right next to the big display.

This was the other display - it was a circus and carnival theme.

The sign above was on display. I just had to document it.




After lunch we came home, Ally tried to nap and we started our fiesta! Yes we celebrated Christmas Eve with a fiesta themed party (at Aunt Beth's request).


Did you know you could buy a cactus to serve cubed cheese from?

Ally loves her grapes.

All dressed up for Christmas Eve Church Service.

Ally, Mommy, Mama and Grandma Debbie at church. (For those of you that know about Ally's boot-issues, yes she is wearing boots at her request and her demand. She refused to wear the pretty black shoes I brought and insisted on her boots. Since I think she looks cute in anything I decided it was not worth a battle.)

The service was lovely, but Ally was not at her best. I think the fiesta and the trains did her in. Let me just say that at one point her Ernie doll was used as a tool to smash pretzels into the carpet. I was really glad it was the children's service, and Ally was not the only over-tired toddler there.

After church we came home and ate tamales, rice and beans as our family way of recognizing the traditional Guatemalan Christmas meal.

Christmas Early

We started our Christmas early this year at my parents' house. Lots of snow - we received about 10 inches in Boston before we left for NY on Saturday and then it snowed in NY all day on Sunday. But we had great weather for our drive to Philly on Monday. The weather here has been balmy (45 degrees) compared to the single digits in upstate NY.

I told my mom, Grandma Barbie that Ally liked the munchkins with sprinkles, so she bought a whole box for Ally. You can tell she really liked them.

Then it was time to open gifts!

This is Grandpa Frank's chair. Ally loved to sit in it when he was not in the room. We had a hilarious moment when he pretended to sit on her. Ally did not think it was very funny, but we did.

Grandpa Frank made a trip to the Union College bookstore to purchase Ally her first article of Union clothing - maybe she is a future Dutch-person? She does look good in garnet. (In case you don't know, Becky graduated from Union)

I cannot remember at all what was so funny, but I just love Becky's face in these two pictures. It reminds me to be silly and animated with Ally.

The cash register from Grandma Barbie and Grandpa Frank was a huge hit. Especially swiping the credit card.

Ally gave my mom a picture she painted.

Ally loves her train.

The wreath below was from Aunt Martha and Uncle Phil. Thank-you so much. We love this fairly traded, Guatemalan Worry Doll wreath. And the adorable backpack (from the same organization) is great - we brought it with us on the trip, and it holds Ally's baby doll clothes.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful day with Mama's family; Grandma Debbie, Poppy Dave, Aunt Beth and Great Aunt Louise came for dinner.

This was Ally's face when she saw the tree and presents.

The tree is beautiful, and yes that huge stuffed animal is an orangutan puppet for Ally (courtesy of Aunt Beth) and it is larger than Ally.

Ally's stocking.

Ally munched on grapes before opening any gifts. It is pretty cute, I think of them as presents but Ally calls them gifts.

It was fun that Ally was into opening gifts this year.

After presents it was time for breakfast. Debbie made this super cute Santas for each person. I guess I know where Becky gets her craftiness from.

Painting with the her new water paint book.

Ally actually ate a chocolate candy - yes the whole thing!

After dinner we had family fun creating with play dough.


While the adults played games an exhausted Ally enjoyed Toy Story on the the TV.