Christmas Eve 2008

We had a busy and fun-filled Christmas Eve. Emily and I made cookies for Santa and reindeer food for the reindeer. Em added the oatmeal and sugar.

Then we sprinkled in the color. One of us did not pay very good attention where she was sprinkling.

You can see that the table was covered in Em's red sprinkles.Then it was outside to the 70 degree afternoon to sprinkle the reindeer food on the lawn.

Em and I rassled a bit before heading back inside.

Then we got all dressed up for church and took the opportunity to take some pictures of the girls in their sweet Christmas dresses.

This is the only family photo where all four members were looking in the general vicinity of the camera.
After church, we went to Robert's uncle's house for dinner.

Emily got this adorable princess robe (complete with a crown on the hood!) and modeled it for everyone.

Then we headed home for a reading of The Night Before Christmas.

Emily taste-tested the cookies for Santa

and his milk
before we laid them out for the big guy.

Do you think Santa visited us? STAY TUNED!

Robert may kill me over these photos

On the 23rd, Emily and Robert did a little Christmas shopping together. Among the items he got suckered into purchasing was a set of princess barrettes. When they got home, everyone with hair long enough to hold barrettes put some in, per Emily's direction. Abby lucked out that her hair is too short for barrettes. Emily donned the Cinderella barrettes.

Robert probably wished he had had a more recent haircut, because Emily made him wear the Belle barrettes.

Every dad with little girls has pictures like these, right?

My new toy

Robert surprised me with a fabulous new camera for Christmas. He gave it to me a few days in advance so that I could learn how to use it before the Christmas festivities. So, we had an impromptu photo shoot at my house on the 22nd. (Really, it's been one long photo shoot ever since I got the camera!) Here are some of my favorite shots from the first night with the camera.

"That's enough."

Apparently, there is such a thing as enough singing.

A quick Christmas trip to Louisiana

Last weekend, we headed to Louisiana for a Daigle family Christmas celebration.

Abby got a festive accessory and spent some quality time with Gerry.

Emily enjoyed her first taste of opening Christmas gifts.

We spent the night at my parents' house and were able to visit with D-P briefly before he went to work the following morning. D-P gave Em this Sleeping Beauty costume, and it was on her person as soon as we could get it out of the packaging.

We had a lovely Christmas and have a lot of great pictures to prove it, so watch for those in the coming days!