Snow!?

 Yes! Snow! in Avondale, Arizona! :) Our neighborhood had their holiday party for the kids on Saturday, and we brought the girls over to play in the snow, ride the train, and visit Santa. It was a lot of fun! They came back for lunch, chattering away about it. (Lia wants to go back and play in the snow this morning!)

 Where's that Santa Claus?

 Aurie loves going out- she's all eyes, taking in the action. And, it's fun for mommy to get all the compliments about our tiny cutie... ;)

 So, our little Lia... Mittens? No way. Touch the snow? No way. But, after seeing Ellie have so much fun getting daddy with snowballs, we decide to give it a little try :) Darn that girl is stubborn!

 So, Lia would not come down from the slide to sit on Santa's lap, but after our turn, she did sidle up to have a little chat- especially since he called to her by name :) It was cute. I have to say (and good thing Santa did the right shopping!), these girls have been pretty consistent for the past month- Ellie's dying for a Jessie doll from Toy Story, and Lia, "a big Wheezy" (the penguin, from the same movie.). 

 And then, after all that lookin', we tucker out :)

 Back to the snow with daddy... now we'll take mittens...oh, those are quite handy! ;)

 Good thing I love this darling, beautiful girl so much! :)

So then, with our Christmas spirit aglow (and only because evrybody took a nap!), we decided to take the gang up to Glendale Glitters, a local festival with dancers, lights, etc. We had a really terrific time. The girls really liked watching the performers from local dance troupes (Lia, even more so than Ellie!), and all the lights were pretty amazing- some even reminded us of our time in Disney last Christmas. We had a super yummy dinner at a German restaurant nearby that we've always wanted to try, talked to the owner and all, since she was truly from Germany, and runs the place with her husband cooking. Then, daddy indulged the girls (groan!) and they chose these humongous light sabers as their "prize"....oh boy...you can see how excited they were. I was thinking it was not a smart idea considering all that's out at home for Christmas decorations, but really they've done well since. They're mostly excited about how they glow, and stick them under the couch and such. 

 (What a sassy pose!)