So, where should I start? Mama and I have had a really busy past seven days. Here’s is just a taste: I helped Mama plan and shop for our Christmas food, she burned the chocolate chip cookies for Santa by herself though, she also spent an hour and a half on the phone with Sirius (on Christmas eve) to correct an error they made, we had a lack of consistent electricity on Christmas day (and a barrage of electricians driving by or knocking on our door)…

Then, Mama’s car wouldn’t start (which turned out to be the battery) and yesterday (our extremely reliable) smoke/CO detector thought it would be a good idea to be flaky. Who knew a CO alarm going off would be the cause for our Fire Chief and crew(in a cool bright red fire truck) to show up for a visit, along with a Dane county sheriff and a little bit later, another (and different) round of service men from our electric company??? And I thought being out of preschool for 2 weeks was going to be boring! P.S. Also, somewhere in there Mama baked a blueberry tart an hour too long…sort of. She turned off the oven, but never removed the tart. The cool thing though…is that 3/4 of it survived and tasted WONDERFUL!!!

At long last…some photos!!

Check me out! I take a hip-hop dance class for 4-5 year olds. It rocks.

For our last class before the holiday break…I was able to invite Mama, Papa, Aunt Robyn and Uncle Pete to come and watch me in my dance class.

I kept seeing them smiling and laughing, but I couldn’t figure out what was so funny!!!

I had a blast with our gifts this year…

Check out these hats Mama and Papa gave me. They’re awesome.

Papa and I found Mama her very own avocado bowl (& spoon) for her really tasty guacamole recipe…

and since Mama is so obsessed with the movie Julie & Julia…we thought she’d like one of everything—especially the French cookbook so she can make us some extra yummy food. How about some Boeuf Bourguignon for dinner tonight???

So, I finally got my first camera. I’ve been asking for one for years and now that I have this one…

I can give her a little taste of her own medicine…plus…

How do you think I did as a first time camera user???

Mama got Papa one of those really cool guitar shirts from ThinkGeek and Santa brought me my own guitar amp…and right as we were about to have a jam session…our electricity disappeared.

After lots of trucks and lots of workers; 2 different neighborhood transformers were replaced and some swinging live wires were reattached to their poles. Sheesh! And we thought it was just us!

I almost forgot…I got Papa this really cool GIANT silicone cupcake. We’ve been drooling over it since we saw a commercial for it months ago. I’m hoping Papa and I can try it out this weekend for New Years!

We also celebrated Christmas with Auntie Robyn and Uncle Pete. We had to proceed with caution though, one reel at a time. (hee hee hee hee hee hee)

Overall we had a yummy food, great music, silly silly Christmas. We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas (and Hanukkah–Grandpa Sam) too. Hopefully all you Texans and Oklahomans took time to get outside and play in your surprising snow storms! Have a good day…and we’ll see you next year!!!

This past week Kyle and I hit the slopes of his backyard.

Every now and then it took a little team work…

and an occasional need to bail out…

okay, well, maybe a little more than an occasional need!

Look kiddos, no hands!

Watch out camera lady!

Pull Kyle…pull! (ahhh…thank you!)

What a great day! Thank you for all of the awesome sledding…I hope winter never ends!

I helped Mama and Auntie Robyn ring the bellls for Salvation Army this year. I think I had two favorites parts: 1)stuffing the money in the tiny hole for the people that gave it to me and 2)running in circles around the red stand, driving Mama and Auntie Robyn crazy. Oh, and I forgot…the best part was meeting a man that pulled a black balloon out of his pocket and turned it into a dog!

ELVEEEEERRRRRRRRRR!!!! (now…the strategy is…if we stay to the left it might be a little bit bumpy, but we’ll avoid all of the really fast crazy people!)

Let’s go!!!

Must-get-to-the-top…

Let’s race! (aside: Hey Aunt Tammy…I might even let you get a head start…heeheeeheehee)

Can I please just have one little ride???

Let’s roll down this time!

Whatever you do…do NOT make me move right now!

I survived Elver’s hill!

We survived Elver’s hill! Come and play with us at Elver. It will be so much fun you’ll be numb with excitement!!! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! We’ll see you next week.

With the predictions of a lot of snow headed our way…we decided we couldn’t wait. Group sledding party!!!

The news reporter today said that Middleton, Wisconsin received 17.5 inches of snow since yesterday. Can you say SNOW DAY?????

Yep…I can still show off my white boy butt in these awesome orange snow pants!!!

Uhm…why am I not moving anywhere?

You’re going to come and rescue me, right?

This is what 17.5 inches of snow and wind looks like. I can’t believe snow even got on our windows (and it’s not from the snow thrower!!).

If y is n and x is q…I think I might witness an avalanche today!

Check out this awesome homemade gingerbread house I visited at our very own Clausen’s European Bakery. There’s even a basket of tasty treats inside!

Do you think anyone would notice if I pulled off one of those chocolate gingerbread men?

Mama and Papa also took me to see Madison’s free Christmas light display. This year they have a new one… that looks like our Capitol building.

They even had one with a lightning bolt to honor superheroes…I’m sure. I hope you guys had a great week. Stay tuned for even more sledding/snow pictures. I’ve been spending just about all of my time outside in the snow…it’s so cool. How can any of you live where there is no snow!!! I’ll try to send you some of ours. See you next week!

Our first accumulating snow occurred last week on Thursday..and as soon as a few more flakes hit the ground I’m loading up in my gear.

I wonder where I should start?

I love my footprints…Mama come take a photo!

And I’m off!

First year to make a snow angel…without Mama making an example one first!

It rocks!

This past week we also made Christmas cookies! I decorated mine all by myself and enjoyed doing it for more than an hour! (Auntie Robyn pre-baked the cookies this time…woo-hoo!)

Mama decorated some too…

Nah…there’s no perfectionist tendencies in her bones.

Uhm…how is this stuff supposed to work…seriously!

Mama…of course I’m not finished…the cookie is not TOTALLY covered yet!

Check out part of our stash…how do you think we did?

I think I only coughed on 3, rubbed nose goobers on 2 and put my arms into the frosting of only one! What an improvement this year!!!

“Mama, why do you always make us a weird snack for preschool?” Mama: “He ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” We hope everyone had a great weekend and who knows…maybe all of this snow we’re expecting will reach up to our rooftops! Have a great Tuesday!