Christmas

We had a great and busy Christmas.  Alena and Nora opened presents at two Christmas parties, Aunt Julianne had a baby shower, and Grandma Dee celebrated her 60th birthday!  Best of all, we got to see all of the cousins, aunts and uncles.  And no one was sick!  Nora was excited to hear that there was a baby inside Aunt Julianne's tummy and did her best to pamper her by making sure she was always wearing shoes.  In just a few months there will be two new babies, ending Nora's reign as the youngest of the Ossmans.  She is ready to meet her cousins!  Nora's favorite Christmas present was a new baby doll.  At the end of the day, it is always puppy though.  We will miss Nora saying "sansa, ho ho ho," now that the season is drawing to a close.

Alena's Christmas wish to Santa came true and she received her fairy wings and her fairy dress.  She really loves them.  Her name is "Fairy Princess Crystal."  Alena also got a new big girl doll named Sandy who has lots of outfits to change into.  Grandma Diane sewed most of the outfits.  She even sewed princess dresses for all of the girls, including Sandy!

Nora being cute

Nora is very excited for Christmas.  She is in love with Santa!  He sent her a video which she insists on watching whenever the laptop is out.  She can say "Santa" and "ho ho ho."  She is also very interested in Christmas cookies.

Nora Lou Who

Christmas town with a few extras.  Nora insists that Noah from Noah's ark is also Santa because of his white beard.

Babies having babies!

Preschool performance

Alena got to sing in two preschool performances this week.  The kids sang some holiday tunes for parents and grandparents to enjoy.  The group had kids from 2-5 years old, so there was quite the range of abilities and attention levels.  Alena did a great job!  See her in the back middle?

Santa Claus

This morning we had our traditional breakfast with Santa at Hy-Vee.  Nora didn't want to sit on his lap, but Alena took up quite a lot of lap time.  He must have been asking her some hard hitting questions according to her expressions.  Alena was so excited to see Santa!  She decided last night that she would wear her purple dress with the ruffles to impress him.  She asked him for fairy wings and a fairy dress.  When I told her to tell Santa what Nora wanted, she said "probably the same thing as me." Which is probably true.  Nora finally showed some excitement when the elf brought out the bowl of candy canes.  She grabbed a handful.  Fortunately her big sister was there to make sure all but one went back into the bowl.  Santa invited the girls to come back on Thursday night when he will be reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and serving hot cocoa and cookies.  What lucky girls!

Christmas tree

We got the tree decorated tonight.  Alena did a great job of putting ornaments on, and Nora did a good job of taking them back off again.  Ruby has taken a lot of interest in the tree.  She is on a reign of terror right now.  In an effort to chew on foam bath toys, she jumped onto the bath frog that holds the toys and knocked it off of the wall.  Twice.  Good luck, Christmas tree.

The girls helped put the tree skirt out

The Christmas cat.  Ruby is too fast for a camera.