our family....

Our family in dolls... Mommy, Daddy, Zanna and my favorite, "the baby who popped out of Mommy's womb." Ah, the mind of a child.

A dog at the manger....

We have a "No-Rehearsal" Christmas Pageant at the church each year on the fourth Sunday of Advent. Zanna's been in it every year... first year, she was a sheep, last year a chicken, and this year, a puppy dog! The No-Rehearsal pageant is always awesome and is a great way for everyone to be involved in the Christmas story in a fun and meaningful way! And, I think she was the cutest puppy at the manger :) She's already decided that next year, she'll be a king!

Baby Jesus' Birthday Party!

For the past 29 years, the Demarest extended family has gathered to celebrate at "Baby Jesus' birthday party". It started out on Christmas Eve when we were younger and the mainstays are a birthday cake for Jesus and a rendition of the Christmas Carol "The Friendly Beasts"... some years there were costumes! When we were younger, our aunts would all give us an ornament for the Christmas tree. Now that our Christmas trees are FILLED with ornaments from each year, we do a gift exchange which is very fun!

I haven't been able to come to BJBP for about 5 years now, so this was exciting to be able to come!! :) We had a great time being with family and celebrating Jesus' Birthday!!
Happy Birthday, Jesus!!

Daddy's 30... Let's PLAY!

Cam turned 30 on December 11, and we took him to play pinball at Pinballz Arcade! It was his dream come true :) Zanna was introduced to racing games and loved the arcade....happy Birthday, Daddy!

There's a MONSTER at the end of this book!

I don't know what happened to the volume in the middle of this, and obviously, my camera is not the best for video, but hey, this is adorable anyhow :) The friend in this picture is Tess who came over for a sleep-over last night after babysitting at the church.

Here's the link!

A good friend... everybody needs one!

Zanna was in heaven last night; we had babysitting by the youth at the church, and Josephine and Tesla came! :) Sadly, I didn't catch Zanna and Tess's antics last night, but here are some of good friends, Josephine and Zanna! They've known each other since Josephine was about 2 weeks old and they are such good friends!! What fun!

An Artist at Work....

Zanna's got a cold, so we stayed home today and this morning worked on some of the ornaments she picked out for the family....

Finding the Perfect Tree!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we headed to Evergreen Farms out in Elgin to choose our tree. Due to the drought conditions throughout most of the year, there were not local trees to cut down, but we got to pick a tree out anyway...and, more importantly, we got to go on the beloved hayride and have some hot cocoa and roast marshmallows on the fire! It was cold and windy this year, but still fun!

Gingerbread House Party!

Today was the Gingerbread House Party at Zanna's school. Hard to believe that this is one thing Zanna has done every year of her life! The first year, we took Brynn and Zanna had NO candy (nor any idea of what candy was...) Last year, I think it was at the gingerbread house party that she discovered candy! It was love at first sight! :) This year, the love was quickly re-kindled between her and candy. We sat at a table with Zanna's great friend Thomas and his family, and Thomas and Zanna would intermittently add candy to their houses (in between stuffing their faces and giving their mothers mischevious grins!) One day, maybe, we'll come home with an architectural masterpiece... today, I'm just pleased any candy went on the house at all!
Highlights of the day were Zanna exclaiming "WOW!" with wide-eyes when walking over to see Thomas' side of the house he was decorating with his sister, Olivia....
Having Tate come and help us decorate the house for a little bit (she's the adorable brunette in the last picture, a friend from Zanna's class)
and the quote on the ride home "Mom, I'm tired and grouchy. Let's take a nap so I can get the grouchy out." :)
Merry (Almost) Christmas!

Kids say (and sing) the darndest things...

So, we've been battling the onset of toddler violence in our house and I have been the sole recipient. Zanna has recently taken to hitting me when she doesn't want to do what is coming next: bathroom, bedtime, naptime, shoes on, etc. I have handled it poorly sometimes and better others, and finally, over Thanksgiving, we had a positive breakthrough. In a quiet moment, when it had been hours since she last hit me, I said to her, "Zanna, it bothers me that you've been hitting me. The next time that you hit me, or someone else, you will need to be by yourself for 2 minutes. People need to be safe, and if you're hitting them, they're not safe." Then, we went on our merry way, probably changing the conversation to Dora or dinosaurs. Later as we drove home in the car, I heard this song coming from the backseat; "I don't hit, I don't bite, I don't even get in the cat's face... because I make good choices!" It continued for a little while, with quite the excellent tune. Cam and I turned down the radio so we could hear her song.
Needless to say, since the song has been sung, Mom has not suffered any more violence at the hands of her toddler. Ah, the power of music.

Rock Band

We played some Beatles Rock Band over Thanksgiving weekend..... Zanna's quite the drummer.

Passing Down Tradition

Aunt Stevie has always been the one to make Great Gramma Jesse's caramels each Christmas, and this year, she taught Zanna how to make them. They had a blast mixing, and pouring, and putting in pecans.... And, the caramels were delish! Thanks Aunt Stevie for passing on a family tradition!