Tuesday, December 28, 2010

'Tis the season!

Let the Christmaspalooza photo fest commence.

First gift: a super-rad coloring board from Aunt Amy and Uncle Kyle that sings when you color on it -- and sings faster and faster the faster you color!

Posing in front of the (very dead) Christmas tree in her very pretty Christmas dress...
...and very fancy clippity-cloppity shoes!
This is one of those accidental photos that will totally embarrass the snot out of her in a decade or so. Hence why it is posted to the blog instead of deleted. Hehe.
Me: "Shae, please look at the camera! Say cheese! Please look at the camera just once for me, honey! Please?"
Shae: "La la laaaaa.... [I can't hear you, mommy]"
"...still can't hear you... and I'm not going to look at that darn camera again..."
"I will, however, steal your phone and play with it. I don't even care that you don't have the keyboard locked. Hello? Who is this that I just called? Hi! I'm Shae Lily Bennigsdorf!"
At least I can take one side photo of the whole ensemble. Better than nuthin'.
Shae swiped the camera when I wasn't looking. Figured we should give some credit to her artistic abilities.

(I never really realized how bulbous my nose is...)
Nothing delights the little elf more than taking a self-photo and then letting her see the results on the camera. Simple pleasures.
A little snack and more color time before church.

"...I'm still not going to look at your darn camera, mommy. Get over it."
Time for Christmas Eve at Gramma and Baba's house! All sorts of different group poses in front of the Christmas tree before we could get to opening those presents. Tease!
Chris' professional-grade camera flashed at the same time as my little rinky-dink camera. The overexposure is funny, but the picture itself is lovely!
One Wrabetz family...
Two Wrabetz family...
Plus Uncle Tom!
Now let's get on with those presents!



Taking a picture of Brian taking a picture of Mom taking a picture of me. Classic.
More presents! Shae helped Keeley play Santa.

Santa Claus found Thornton! Thank goodness!

Thank you, Uncle Joe, for the incredibly awesome handmade wooden puzzle. Shae loves squirrels and thinks this is so much fun!
Let Christmas morning begin! I suspect this is the last time for many years that we had a reasonable wake-up time and managed to get Shae to eat her breakfast before heading over to open presents.

Plumb tuckered out from all those presents! Whew!
The Tinkerbell chair is a coveted item.
Pulling around her "blue pool" in the aftermath of presents.
Taking a break from all the madness. The chair is portable!
What? More presents! Why yes, thank you, I think I will!
Making an exquisite delicacy in her new play kitchen.

Merry Christmas to all! We hope that Santa Claus found your house, was generous to you and yours, and that your day was filled with special delights, and the warmth of family and friends. Many hugs from the Bennigsdorf family!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

'Tis the season for tasty treats

Shae helps make chocolate-covered pretzel rods.
And by "help" I mean that she just ate the red sprinkles.
Please note: no pretzels were decorated with red sprinkles.
Shae helps make sugar cookies!
Shae figures out how to open every container of decorative sprinkles.
Shae was in charge of sprinkling the cookies on the top left. She also didn't entirely comprehend why we don't immediately eat the fruits of our labor. (Come to think of it, neither do I...)
Work, work, work!
Again with the red sprinkles!
A fun project, all in all.