Max did great with his Christmas play. He was Kid 1 who played a "shepherd" in a play. Kind of a play within a play. He remembered all his lines, and did a great job.

Here he is saying one of his lines, "Yeah, my family has lots of stuff in our bags that we can use!"

Then we got to see the Big Guy!!

Max tried to convince Santa he was good this year.

Mattie has never been shy with Santa.

Look who's a big girl! Mattie really likes her bed, although lately she has been leaving it in the middle of the night to join Max in his. That would be fine if they went back to sleep, but they usually end up playing. I found them at 4am a few nights ago...they were playing legos.

Christmas has finally come to the outside of our house.

Mark and the kids did a great job putting it up.

Mark and Max handled the lights.

Mattie hammered in a stake.

Mattie was kind enough to paint my fingernails for me today. She insisted, in fact.



She did better than I expected, but she kept looking up at me and saying, Be still!




Then she let me paint her fingernails. And toenails. Twice.
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Christmas time!! We have been having a great time decorating our house (and Nana and Papa's) for Christmas.

We got our tree up and the kids did a great job trimming it out.

Yesterday was Dec. 1st and we always start the Christmas countdowns, put the star on the tree and...the biggest treat... the first 2008 Christmas season viewing of "Elf". Oh, yes. It's Christmas now. Emily got to share that special family time with us. You're welcome, Emma.

Max finally lost his second tooth today, he pulled it out himself. I was glad, I wasn't going to do it.

Max expresses his excitement about Christmas through art.