This is one year I was happy to see end.
But before it ended, we spent the month of December getting into the Christmas spirit.
We made a trip to Louisville (Libby's preschool class bear, Bailey, tagged along) where the girls got the chance to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas, and we also toured Kaleidoscope, a giant warehouse full of Chinese lantern type lights with a Christmas theme.
Although it was rainy, it was pretty warm, so we walked around the city, found a tasty place for lunch, and introduced the kids to Fourth Street Live, the Slugger Museum, and some other sites, then finished the day with an IMAX movie....about Polar Bears, of course!
It's our annual tradition to make a gingerbread house. This year we turned the project over to the girls - and yes, that was painful, just painful.
We spent another beautiful weekend day in Cincinnati, visiting Krohn's Conservatory to see their train display and rain forests, the girls got (more) Santa time, we swung by Union Station to see their OMNIMAX movie about trains (are you sensing a theme here?) and then walked through the gardens at the Creation Museum on the way home.
By Christmas Eve, the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, and the pile of presents proved to the kids that Saint Nick was here!
I love this picture. I captured Anna's face when she realized we were getting her a hamster (which we got yesterday, a little spotted female named Cookie).
Nana and Plap Plap arrived around dinnertime, with a load of more gifts. Earl and I, after enjoying a wonderful ham dinner, were able to give ourselves our Christmas present - a trip to the movies to see Les Miserables! Anna went back to Pennsylvania for the next week, which got extended to this weekend because of an untimely snow storm. much to her dismay delight.
The Saturday after Christmas we received an unseasonably large snowfall. It was the perfect packing snow, and Earl and Libby thoroughly enjoyed it!
Libby loved her snowman....perhaps a little too exuberantly...and ended up knocking it over.
We rang in the new year in our typical low key way, with Libby in bed, and a spread of goodies for me and Earl.
Here's hoping 2013 brings more happiness to the Smith family!
