blast from the past: sledding

Mackenzie experienced her first sledding adventure today and LOVED it.
As she said later, the best part was the hot chocolate after. :)

However, she was also treated to a special sledding adventure with Grandpa Richard that has become a family tradition....a ride on the sled being pulled by the tractor.

Ironically, the only thing that has changed in these pictures from the first time it happened 29 years ago is the little girl riding on the sled. Same tractor, same sled, same driver. And same rider too, but no pics of that.

I don't know who enjoyed it more: Richard, Jane, Mackenzie or me.
Maybe a combination of all of us.

ho ho heaven

Hope your enjoyed the heavenly joys of the holiday season today,

such as the chocolate before breakfast - a la Mackenzie Jean.

And dressing festively - cars and cousin Eddie included!

not snow funny

the caption on this photo is "Oh,no - I just peed my pants!!!!"
I guess the first snowfall of the year can do that to some people.

12 days of Christmas

On the 1st day of Christmas, technically being Dec. 13, my mother gave to me....a lighted Christmas tree @ her house!!

With a little helper from her favorite helper as well, during our sleepover during the recent storm (and resulting power/water loss at our house).

And this is a big deal because Jane is known to take FOREVER to get her tree up and decorated, usually with much prompting and assistance from me. Her goal is usually to have it up by my birthday - so to have it up a week beforehand is a BIG deal. :)

I have offered her the assistance of Mackenzie, who LOVED decorating our tree, and have joked that between the two of them, they would be able to fully decorate the bottom half of the tree, then I would do the top. ha ha.

shiny little nose

A cute picture of my own personal reindeer with the "shiny nose".

This is 100% Mackenzie's idea - I am just glad I was able to get a picture of it.

Snow Cute

Mackenzie is quite excited with the first measurable snowfall of the season at our house. Too bad it is too cold to actually go out and play in it yet. Hopefully someday soon.....

I did it myself!!

While I took my shower, Mackenzie prettied herself up with some of my make-up. If you look closely, you can see she actually did a decent job of getting on her eyelashes. So pretty.

giving back

trying my hand with some new digital scrapbooking software...this is a product of that experiment.....

"It's not big, it's just full"

]
We headed out in our 4 wheeled sleigh to look for the spirit of the Griswald family christmas tree. We did remember the saw, though. A few false alarms by Uncle Jon, but no squirrels were found. And even though we are not Griswald's by name, I think our ability to quote the movie does qualify us for it. And in the end, we ended up with a nice tree for Grandma's house (who did not get run over by a reindeer while we were out today). "It's not going in the front yard, it's going in our living room!"

a story....

So Mackenzie was spending some quality time with Grandma Jane earlier this week, while Mommy worked late at school. When I came to pick her up, Mackenzie wanted me to be her baby and put a bib on me. The "bib" turned out to be a pair of Grandpa Richard's underwear that she found in the thankfully CLEAN laundry basket. No photos were taken of me with my father's underwear around my neck.

Deputy Mackenzie

Much to her Daddy's delight, Mackenzie proudly displays her "honorary" Sheriff's badge and tattoo.