Feliz Navidad

Tonight was our Feliz Navidad night. For dinner we had chips and salsa, beef enchiladas & some mexican sodas. Then to mix our local flavor with the entertainment for the night (Utes in the Poinsettia Bowl), we got a pinata! Zaida had been eyeing that thing all day & was so excited when she finally got to wack it!

She hit it about 30 times with no luck. I punctured the thing a few times & both Corey and I hit it too with no success. I finally ripped the stinking thing apart. Zaida could have cared less --- at that point she was tired and just wanted the candy. Now, there is a girl confident of her lot in life. She doesn't even bother to gather her loot, just sits down and starts eating.

Sledding

Zaida was so excited to go outside in the snow. She had been asking to go make "snowboys" all day. She is an outdoorsy kind of gal - even if it is freezing! Finally Dad got home and took her out for a ride in her sled. She really wasn't too excited that mom was taking pictures instead of opening the door!

I'm not kidding I probably took close to 20 pictures and this is the closest I got to seeing her face. She was hunkered down the whole time they were sledding. (Side note: Zaida just walked in here and said "'scuse me, mommy" and tried to take the camera away from me) We would ask Zaida to look at me and say cheese and she would say cheese, but wouldn't look up at all.

Here's Corey in his Uncle Eddie hat. Isn't he cute?

Yep, someone's upset she has to come inside. Sledding with Daddy is fun! Dinner, not so much.

Another movie night

Day 21 - movie night "Elf". She was so cute when she pulled the card out of the drawer. She got all excited, says "popcorm!" and then pretended to pull off the pieces of popcorn & pretends to munch on them. I think we got the movie into the DVD player, but I don't think we ever hit the play button. Zaida was worn out & crashed sitting up on the couch with her juice propped in her mouth.

Candyland

Day 20 was our game night. Again, Zaida is wearing her "Candy makes me happy" jammies in honor of the game - Candyland! She was all excited to play the game, but then when Corey and I tried to take a game piece she was not down with that. She kept lining them all up together and saying "March, march, march, march".

Even though we didn't really play the game I think she had a good time. She was telling us about all the people on the board ... the clown (Mr. Mint - the peppermint guy), the peanut, the ickresh (licorice), the princess, the castle & the chwaukwet (chocolate).

Music night

I absolutely love Donny's Christmas album. I've had it for ages & it is probably my favorite holiday music. I set up the stereo in the front room and put this CD on and we had a little dance party. Zaida LOVES music - but, I think she loved dancing with her daddy even better.

We also put on this CD we found while in Brazil (Tribalistas) and Zaida was rocking out to it. She's awesome.

Orange cookies

Zaida's aunt Angie and I got to go out and finish up some of her Christmas shopping. After we got home we made some orange slice cookies, my Grandma Wheeler's recipe. They are a little different from most Christmas cookies - some would say they are an "aquired taste" (right, Cara?!). But, they are DELISH! I seriously get addicted to them. I think I made at least 3 batches last year!

Presents

Zaida helped me to wrap the rest of our Christmas presents. It's nice to get everything pretty much done & ready for Christmas. Here are some of the presents that we finished off. Zaida's are on the other side of the tree- she gets special princess wrapping paper.

Thanksgiving Point

Sorry - I got a little behind schedule here ... but, we are back in business.

We went to go check out the Christmas lights at Thanksgiving Point the other night. I've never been there before (for the Christmas stuff) and it was pretty cool. There are a couple of archways that you drive through where the reindeer jump over the road. It was fun for Zaida to watch them through the sunroof.

Zaida liked the lights, but she was more interested in helping Papi drive the car.

Eskimo

Day 16 was our Eskimo night. I'm not even going to pretend like I know how to say it ... but, I'm sure Uncle Wook-wak does.

I made this cute little igloo/snowball looking cake. It was my first attempt at this cake. I might do it differently next time, but it worked.

The cake was pretty good minus the coconut (I hate coconut) - it was a devil's food cake with a cream cheese filling & a custard/cool whip topping. Yum!

I made Zaida her own little version in "cancake" form. She again only ate the frosting.

Feliz Natal

Monday was our Feliz Natal celebration. Corey went to Brazil on his mission, hence the Portuguese Merry Christmas. In the drawer is some necklaces I bought while down in Brazil. And, some of Corey's favorite peanut caramel snack things. I attempted to make a dinner similar to what we ate at this little cafe near Ipanema. I also went to a nearby grocery store and bought some of Corey's favorite sodas Guarana. After dinner we enjoyed a little ice cream, Dulce de Leche - which is similar to something we had down there also. Except the stuff we had was cashew caramel ice cream (delicious!).

Zaida is somewhat obsessed with doing "cheers". She does it with her juices, her tea cups, and now with ice cream. She loves it and will do it with almost every bite/drink.

Part of the Brazilian tradition is to set up the nativity scene and tell the story. I got out one of Zaida's little nativity books and Corey read it while I put up the set. She was way more interested in the baby & the "aminals", but we got through it without any casualties.

Forgotten Carols

Tonight we went to Michael McLean's "The Forgotten Carols". And it was, as always, fabulous! Zaida went with us - and was a rockstar! She fell asleep in the car on the way to the performance (of course). But, when she woke up she was all excited to see/hear "Santa's songs". She really was a champ almost all the way until intermission. She would clap so energetically. I wish I could have gotten a video of it. She was just so stinking cute! She would be eating a snack or drinking a juice, but when it time to clap she would hand it over to me and clap, clap, CLAP ... then grab it back. She is such a happy kid. I just love her to pieces!

After intermission Corey and the little gal didn't come back in, so I sat through a couple more songs and packed up everything and snuck out. All I could see was these little legs chugging away with her hair flowing behind her. That girl can really move it when she wants to. Corey said she had climbed up the balcony stairs at least half a dozen times. And, she wasn't even close to slowing down when I got out there. Where does she get all her energy?!

Anyway, I love the Forgotten Carols. I'm so glad we got to go. I think I will feel like Constance this year & will want to cry the day that I take the tree down.

But, until then ... Merry Christmas! I'm glad you all are following along in our fun advent-ure!

Gingertown

Day 13 - we are going to take on the task of making a gingerbread house. But, before we get started I would like to tell you that Zaida's outfit is just for the sake of getting dirty, but I can't. Zaida insisted on wearing one of my cami tanks as a dress. She was doing spins in it & was very, very upset when Corey tried to get her dressed. So, we ended up with her jammy top (which appropriately says "Candy Makes Me Happy"), her "dress" and leggings (because it is winter after all). What a sight! I convinced her to take off the "dress" by telling her that we didn't want to get it dirty.

Apparently Zaida isn't sugared up enough, she needed her candy bracelet too!

Corey and Zaida posing in front of the partially completed disaster which Zaida lovingly calls her "gingertown."

Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes can sleep well tonight - the Meurer's will not be making a run for their jobs!

Day 12

Well, we were going to do a fun activity yesterday, but it just turned out to be a little bit of a lazy night. After all the shopping we (I) just weren't in the mood for something super involved. So, we decided to swap a couple of days & watched one of our favorite Christmas movies, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Is it inappropriate? Yes. But, do we love it? Yes.

"Merry Christmas ... Merry Christmas ... Kiss my ... Kiss his ... Kiss your ... Happy Hanukkah!"

Oh Poop. I forgot to mention that we went to a Christmas party that our old neighbors throw every year. They even had a special guest!

Here Zaida is showing me a pink cookie. She licked off all of the frosting, then gave me the rest of it. What a nice girl! :)

Merri Kurisumasu

Day 11 - This is our Japanese celebration. The box had chopsticks in it too, but Zaida snatched those out SO fast & started playing the "drums" with them. Then she made everyone dance. Can I say how much I love this picture?! My dad is such a good sport. I love ZZ's huge smile & her funky dancing leg. The menu included miso soup and something Japanese for dinner (maybe Yakisoba?). But, Corey took it about 5 steps beyond and got us some sushi rolls and chicken fried rice from ... BENI HANA!

My brother, Quinn, went on his mission to Japan. I asked him what (if any) Christmas traditions they had. Since most of them are Buddhist, they don't do much. But, he said they "make a white cake and eat it." So, Zaida and I made a cake. She wants to help so much. It's pretty cute. She counts out the eggs for me. And will pour things into the bowl from the measuring cups. And will even try to stir it.

Admiring her cake.

She actually doesn't eat a bite of it, but she does lick the frosting!

Nutcracker

Day 10 - This is one of those traditions my mom and I used to do when I was little. Each year we would go see Ballet West's performance of "The Nutcracker." It's hard to tell, but in the drawer is a nutcracker (not a cute Christmasy one, though) & some roasted nuts. Zaida and Papi enjoying some nuts. Nummy!

Zaida is a little young to attempt the ballet, so I got the Barbie movie of the Nutcracker.

All cozy watching the movie. This honestly lasted about 5 more seconds. Too much excitement with Maui and Papi and pizza and chocolate juice (milk), etc. We'll try to watch it again tomorrow, I'm sure we will get a better response. She's really into Barbie lately - I taped Barbie and the Three Musketeers the other day and she really digs it. She will go in the other room and get one of my long taper candles off of the candlestick and poke things with it & then put her hand up in the air and say "kateers!"

Reindeer & Sledding

Well, we went to go check out "Santa's reindeer" (a local elk farm), but it just gets dark too dang early. We basically could see a couple of silhouettes of horns, but that's it.

Then as I was walking back to the car I totally slipped and fell on my butt (hence the sledding portion of the evening). I was hanging on to Zaida and I was trying so hard not to drop her. But, she did get a little snow on her & she started yelling "It's me! It's me!"

Then she was backseat driving on the way home yelling at Corey to "be careful" & then she started chanting "Stop this car! Stop this car! Stop this car!"

She is so funny!

Glitter glue & cookie cutters

Tonight we had an arts & crafts kind of night. I printed off a bunch of clip art pictures for Zaida to color & got her some cute little markers at the store. Unfortunately for me they turned out to be glitter glue markers. Luckily for me they are washable - whew! Look at this death grip ... yep, she is actually bending the marker.

Zaida's aunt and cousin came over to play too. We went and got a bite to eat & then made some gift tags out of cookie cutters. Here is Angela plotting out her next one. I think they turned out pretty cute. What do you think?