Christmas Meal

We were lucky to be invited to CK's cousin's house for Christmas dinner, so we made dinner rolls, Lila's carmel pecan pie, and my Grandma's apple pie to take with us. It was a delicious meal with Jason, Tanya and her family and CK's Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Marvin and Grandma Van. Excellent food and excellent company! We left stuffed!

Putting the "top" on the apple pie


The kid's table


With Jason and Adam after eating


Relaxing together with full bellies

Opening Presents on Christmas Day

On Christmas day we woke up, built a fire and opened presents in our pajamas while snacking on the delicious Wolferman's english muffins sent my my cousin Kari and her family. Sofia also explored the goodies left by Santa - the much-asked for Pony House with ponies and pony clothes (we still have no idea why this was such a requested toy). Santa also left a few goodies in Sofia's stocking, including a chocolate Santa, which I don't think lasted more than a few days. It was a relaxed morning and fun time spent together.

To Sofia from Santa...


Helping Papa put together his Tic-Tac-Toe game (from Sofia)


Sofia gets her own Baron! This becomes one of her most prized possessions!


Books, books and more books.....She's in Heaven!


Smile! Her new camera from Uncle Roger and Aunt Kathy


Smile Papa!


Fun fish sunglasses from Aunt Shirl and Uncle Steve.

Papa's Birthday Candles

Below is a video of Sofia helping her Grandma add candles to CK's birthday cake. She loved it and it's amazing we didn't burn down the house :-) Enjoy!

Angeles del Cielo

Below is the video from Sofia's school's Christmas show. The entire 3-year old classes sang "Angeles del Cielo" and did a great job. Sofia is in the middle and is wearing her pink tennis shoes (they are pretty easy to spot). Going into this show, she never told us anything about what they were singing, what they were practicing at school, etc. She was very silent on the whole thing, so it was all new to us! Enjoy!

Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa

On our final night at Grandpa and Grandma's house, we opened presents as our early Christmas together. It was a lovely evening full of delicious food and spiced juice, and of course, presents. Sofia loved it and it was great fun to watch her open each of her presents and enjoy it. One present she opened she completely fell in love with and it was hard to convince her that she had more presents to open! It was what she now calls the "animal machine." It's shaped like a small gum ball machine and using a fake coin, a round plastic animal would pop out of the machine. She completely fell in love! She set it all up and then started playing with it and really had to be coaxed to open her grand finale! I didn't take a photo of her big final present from her Grandma and Grandpa, but only video, which is hilarious to watch! Such excitement!

Sofia and a mountain of presents


Little Santa girl


Helping Grandma open her gift


Opening a Sofia gift


The "animal machine"!!


Setting up all her animal furniture and playing...

Our Little Farm Gal

Our gal loves to be at Grandma and Grandpa's farm and fits right in with cutting firewood, climbing all over rolled hay, playing in the dirt, taking long walks in the vast fields, and her very favorite - Gator rides! As I packed her clothes prior to our trip to Florida, the very first thing she asked was "Can Grandpa give me a Gator ride when we get there?" During our week visit, I think she rode on the Gator nearly everyday and probably would have gone more often if she could have!

One day, I gave her a Gator ride and took her to the far end of the runway to see if the coyotes who lived on the other side of the fence were still there. We didn't see them, but she immediately "needed" to climb on the rolled hay and convinced Grandpa to take her back several times. She became really good at climbing from roll to roll. She also loved riding on the tractor with her Papa one day when Grandpa and Papa decided to cut firewood from a dead tree on the property. She, of course, was right in the middle of it all helping as much as she could.

After Meeting on Sunday, her cousin Amelia and she slipped out to play outside and we found them walking hand in hand in the middle of the field across from the house. They were both talking away perfectly happy to be enjoying the day together.

With Grandpa on the Gator - her favorite place to be!


With Papa on the tractor


Heading out to the dead tree to cut firewood


Helping load firewood


On the hay


Queen of the world!


With Amelia in the field


Smile!


It's never too early to head to the hanger in one's pjs and get a Gator ride...


and Grandpa is always willing to give one!

Papa's Birthday

On Sunday evening we celebrated Papa's birthday! Dinner was a surprise for us all and when we turned into Yamato, we were all excited! Yamato is similar to Benny Hanna, with a grill in the middle of a table and group of chairs, where we sat and watched our meal cook. At first, Sofia was unsure of all the activity, loud noises and the blast of fire that the chef starts off with to clean the grill. However, in no time she was absolutely transfixed and loved the entire experience (she also devoured everything - fried rice, shrimp, steak, grilled veggies). It was quite the birthday dinner experience and the food was outstanding!

Birthday Papa and his gal


All of us ready to celebrate!


Our chef


The chef's onion volcano!


Papa and his birthday cake (with a little helper ready to eat it). She did help Grandma arrange the candles.


Call the fire department, it's Papa's birthday!


Cutting into his birthday cake!

Raspberries

On Saturday night, we had ice cream and fresh raspberries, which Sofia realized she could fit onto her fingers like olives (one of her very favorite things to do), so she certainly got her fill of raspberries that evening! I think she filled each hand twice and then ate them off one by one....

All set to eat them!


Showing them off first!


The thumb raspberry is gone!


All but one left....


Rearmed....


and ready to eat!

Trains!

We flew to Florida on Friday December 17th to spend Papa's birthday and an early Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma on the farm. On Saturday, Grandpa and Grandma took us to the train exhibit at the College of Central Florida (where Papa went to community college so many years ago). The train exhibit was great and Sofia couldn't get enough of them. The trains weren't displayed at her level, which meant that someone had to hold her up to watch, and that was usually Grandma or Grandpa. A few days later, Grandma took us back to visit the trains again after we'd been in town for lunch with Great Grandma and Aunt Bonnie. Sofia's big thing was to count each of the train cars as they'd go by. She's great with 1-11, but then jumps to 13, 16, 12.... so each time she came out with a different final number.

Taking off from Addison


Helping Papa fly


Looking at the trains with Grandma


Watching trains with Grandma and Grandpa


Some of the incredible detail of the exhibit


Waiting for her favorite train to pass through the tunnel with Grandma. It was the fastest train there!


All tuckered out with Grandma and Grandpa after the train visit


Counting train cars (this entire display was raffled off and I'm still hoping to get a call that we won it!)