Here are all the photos from December leading up to Christmas.  Sarah got an awesome new pair of panda earmuffs from our friend Elizabeth.

We also had a lot of developments on the home decor front — our new (red!) couch arrived for the living room, and we finally got the downstairs painted.

After the painting was finished we went out to get our Christmas tree, in the middle of the first snowfall of the season.  Sarah decided she needed to use the bathroom, which meant that Daddy and Blaine took over on picking the tree.

Later that day, during Sarah’s nap, Blaine and I built a mini-snowman which Blaine decided was a “Snow Baby”.

Sarah enjoyed dressing up in Blaine’s old Halloween costume and flying around the house.

The next day, the 10th, we decorated!  Sarah helped me put up the Christmas lights and garland on the front of the house.

Daddy got the tree all set up and the kids helped to decorate.

Here’s Blaine filling the advent calendar train from Gram with some adorable little stamps.  I’m also including it because it shows off our new paint colors — a taupe color called “cedar key” in the living room, and a deep blue called “phillipsburg blue” in the dining room and the stairs.  We used a light grey/pewter color for the kitchen/family room.

Later that week, more hot chocolate!

I went out for drinks one night with some friends, and upon returning home that night spotted what appeared to be a lone, young looking coyote, run down our street and then down our driveway.  The next morning I took pics of some tracks in some undisturbed snow beside the garage.  I have no idea – maybe it was a stray dog or something – but there have been coyote sightings nearby.

Sarah was invited to a 4th birthday party with music and dancing, even a limbo competition (though Sarah declined to participate).  I’m recalling now that as of this party Sarah was on a 5-day no-napping streak.  She’s since gone back and forth, napping some days and not on others.  I’m very, very sad to see the nap starting to go.

The kids both adored opening their Lindt advent calendars each day.  Thanks, Gram!

Lastly, here’s a pic from a holiday party in Blaine’s Kindergarten class, celebrating literacy.  Blaine made a really cool book about things we like to do as a family, and did all the writing and illustrating.