Season's Greetings
I had a heckuvva time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. But that being said, we had some very enjoyable moments during the festivities. A couple of weekends prior to Christmas, we had some very welcomed guests...my favorite little brother Brandon (better known in our family as Bud) and his two girls, Madison and Taylor. We were so excited for them to come to "Bernal", as Taylor calls it. One night, I presented them with their cute little Christmas-y aprons I had bought them and we cut out and baked some sugar cookies. We had a blast making them...and giggling when the gingerbread man's head or leg fell off. LOL
Here are the cute little chefs showing off their finished (and unfinished) product ...
Kids say the darndest things, right? RIGHT! Funny story...but first a little background info. I still have a Kewpie doll that I received as a Christmas present when I was one year old. Being the first girl after 5 boys, I was a bit of a tomboy and this was really the only doll I ever played with. I even tried to cut its hair like my friend did with her doll -- remember those dolls that you could cut the hair and it would grow back? Who knew my Kewpie doll didn't have the same skills? (Notice the stub on its head).
Now for the funny/cute part... As most girls do, Maddy and Taylor fell in love with my Kewpie doll when they arrived. However, they were bothered by the fact that she didn't have a name. They immediately went to work making suggestions that they couldn't totally agree on. When I suggested they name it Dinah in honor of Vernal's famous pink dinosaur that they love to visit, they instead were inspired to name her "VernaDine"! So at last, and forevermore, my Kewpie doll has a name. Clothes? ...NO, but name? ... YES!
While they were here, we went to McDonald's playland -- shoveled snow -- saw Disney's Princess and the Frog movie -- shoveled snow -- bowled at DinahBowl (pics didn't turn out) -- shoveled snow -- baked cookies and watched movies until the wee hours -- and did I mention we shoveled snow? UGH! The snow just kept coming down!!! The positive in all that snow...it kept them here an extra day. YAY!!!
I think maybe we'll have to convince them to make their visit an annual pre-Christmas tradition. Can't wait to do it all again! Bud and girls, we miss you already (and so does VernaDine)!
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of our family and friends!
XOXO
