The Kies Family: Making Christmas Cookies and a 'Tricky Elf

pouring the eggs in....always get me a little anxious!

So I thought that I should quick post these photos tonight as there will plenty more in the days to come with several more Christmas celebrations on the horizon. These are all from my iphone captured by myself and Eric. Wednesday evening we had John and Sue come over for pizza. John is one of my best running buddies. He and Sue came over earlier this fall to help Eric get our bikes hung from the ceiling of the garage, a fabulous space saver if you have bikes lying around. Maddox was enamored with John and Sue and wanted them to come over for pizza and kept repeatedly mentioning it the last month or so. John hauls gasoline for Casey's so he brought Casey's pizza.....our favorite. It happened to be John's birthday last Saturday so we took advantage of celebrating his YOUNG age and got a cake. You can see Maddox positioned herself right close to the birthday boy to get a clean shot at blowing out the candles. Luckily John has a lot of grand kids and didn't mind sharing his cake/candles with Maddox. Sue even shared her frosting with Maddox.....something Maddox will never forget. Happy birthday John and thanks for bringing the pizza. Thursday the blizzard hit. I managed to get a few patients in and then Maddox and I took advantage of the weather and put together some sugar cookie dough. We baked them Saturday morning and then frosted them this afternoon. I found a great new icing recipe but Maddox really could have cared less about the icing. She was WAY into the sprinkles. You can see the results of her heavy hand on the cookies. She and I have made this a tradition and we will be happy to have Kennon join us next year. These cookies actually taste good this year!! Last year not so much.....we are getting better with practice Maddox. So Blake, the Elf, has just about done his duty for 2012. He has been through an identity crisis, made a snow angel in the sugar bowl and teepeed the Christmas tree which is just about enough for 2012. Maddox called him 'tricky' which she woke up this morning and saw that he had made a snow angel in the sugar. CUTE We are excited to see what the 2013 Christmas season will bring. Maddox is really into Blake (or Chippie as she sometimes calls him....hence the identity crisis). She hurries down each morning to see where his new location is. I can't say it has totally fixed her behavior but it has definitely heightened her Christmas spirit and belief in Santa which is really the most exciting aspect of the Elf. Next year Kennon will get in on the action a bit more. Maddox and Kennon took advantage of the warm weather yesterday and got out to play in the snow. They had a good time, although Maddox definitely more than Kennon. Kennon had a hard time negotiating the huge drifts and getting his snow boots to stay on. He was wearing a pair of Maddox's hand-me-downs which apparently did not fit him very well. He would get caught up in the snow and let out this shriek like 'why are we out here in the cold and could someone please come take me inside....really people'. It was almost like he was mad at the snow. Maddox on the other hand fared well in the snow and loved sliding down swing set slide which is super fast with the combo of snow pants and snow. They both seemed to be very interested in the shovel as well....hoping this will come in handy in the future. Merry Christmas everyone and special wishes of good health to Grammy and Great Grandma Reta. We are thinking of you and love you both lots!!