Alma Mater: Happy Holidays from Stella and Family

Friday, January 11, 2013

Happy Holidays from Stella and Family

Happy Holidays to Alma Mater's wonderful readers!

I am just now managing to post after the hustle and bustle of Christmas, New Year's, vacation, and just life in general! We have been really busy for the most part, but we have also had some really relaxing times as well.

We started the Holiday hustle and bustle by baking Christmas cookies. (See the post here)

The week after that ended with going to Annalee with Grandpa Z. on the second Saturday in December. Mom has continued this tradition since she was my age and hasn't missed a year =)

The next Saturday we went to Grandma and Grandpa P's and Mom visited her friend C. We had a wonderful time and got the following pictures:

Playing Leapster with Grandpa

Wii Time ;)

Snuggles with Grandma and Grandpa

Filia loved Kirby =)

Leo, Rus, Tert, and Filia all did a play of the Little Drummer Boy that they had been preparing over the last week. They worked really hard on it and I have posted the video below ;)

We had a great family Christmas party the week after that (with the P family ;) ) The boys played endlessly with their new race track and everyone tried on the new clothes that they got. We also got a hilarious game called 'Quelf.' The things that they require you to do create laugh after laugh. From sitting up and down with a shoe on your head to doing the chicken dance, everyone has a blast. (And it's an adult game-hmm ;) ) Click here to go to the link on Amazon

We kids exchanged the presents we had bought for each other and Mom and Dad got all their presents. We also bought Mom and Dad stockings this year so that they could have a place to put their gifts. Mom's gifts included a new watch from Dad, ornaments from Stella, candles from Leo and Rus, flowers from Rus, and a Christmas dishtowel from Tert. Dad got some nice new shirts, ties, etc. from Mom, candy from Stella and Leo, and Christmas decorations from Rus and Tert. He got a photo desk calendar that I made for him on Shutterfly from all of us.
We spent a quiet morning and had a nice lunch at Grandma and Grandpa Z's. After lunch we opened presents. I have posted some pictures of them below:

Princess Outfits =)

Awesome Animal Shirts :)

New Shirt From Grandma

Tert and Lyd (see her site here! )
Here are some of the homemade presents we did this year. (Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the fudge, popcorn, and other candy that Mom made. It all came out beautifully, but it has long since been shipped out to friends :P)

Mom took me to her friend Mrs. W's beading class and I bought and made a bracelet. It was really fun, although I think I'm much better at sewing :P
Here are some of the patchworks that I sewed:

Here are some pictures from our Christmas morning :)

Our main presents were: Filia- kitchen set and my old doll set

Tert and Rus- remote control dino

Leo- guitar

Stella- kindle!

~Stockings~

Oooh! A matchbox car holder that turns into a road to drive the cars on!

Our handsome little Tert

Money organizer with 3 categories: Save, Share, and Spend

New Arrows!

Boots :)

New Imaginext Catapult for Tert's Castle Set

Jonathan Park Animal Guide

Aww, I love the croc above =)

New Talking Globe

Mom and I now have (almost) matching hats! They look like the one above, but hers is brown.

Leo loves his new guitar!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

New Hello Kitty Toothbrush from Leo

New Nightlight (fiberoptic)for me and Filia (up till now Filia has needed to have a lamp on our dresser :P )

What's this?

Card-making kit (you all might get cards from me ;) )

Jewelry Organizer and Calendar!

New Socks!

New Madeline (Filia was breathless when she got this!)

(I don't know if you can see the eagle in his right hand)

Uh-oh...'brothers in crime'

New Basketball Shirt!
Now here are some pictures from our vacation...

I used the LOTW Christmas Pack the week before Christmas and Tert loved it! Check out the preschool pack here! from Erica...

Candy Cane Count

Letter Tracing and Patterning

This activity was great for Tert! He had to count the ornaments on the trees and put the star with the right number on top of the trees.

Color By Number

Clip Cards and Coloring Pages
~Puzzle Time and Color Match~

~C for Christmas~

Hooray for Winter!

Climbing snow mountains ;)

Fun Time with Daddy

Our Fairy Princess
Here are some snowmen that Leo, Rus, Tert, Filia and I made ;)

Mr. Snowman

Mrs. Snowman (the hair was Leo's idea [ahem]) and Baby

Baby, Mrs. and Mr.

"We'll have lots of fun with Mr. [and Mrs. and Baby ;) ] Snowman until the other kiddies knock 'im down!"

We went to Boutwell's Bowling Center with Dad over our Christmas break! Everyone had a blast, as you can tell from the pictures below...

I love this action shot!

Look at the tongue :P

Go Leo!

Tert was winning in the end and had more points than me! Oh well ;)

Yay!

Sisters Bowling...

Dad explains the 'bumper bowling'

Release...
Look Dad!!

I loved Filia's little bowling shoes!

Handsome little Tert

Oh my gosh! I can't get enough of this picture :)

He provides endless laughs!

So THAT'S where my lipgloss went...

This is one of our favorite outfits of hers! It's so stinking cute!

~Braids 'N Bows~

New Hello Kitty Waterbottle

~Filia and Leo~

Love my little Tert =)

Snuggling in front of the Christmas Tree

I frankly don't know what's up with the above picture...

;) Sisters ;)

Daddy's Little Girl =)

Hmmm....

Dancing Buddies

Student and Teacher/Brother and Sister

Partners in Crime

I love the knowing look on her face in the above picture ;)

Where'd my partner go?

Er...cutting in

Hmm...

So sweet!

Filia provides the music...

Guitar Fun

Boo!

~Dancing Fun~

Playing with new Christmas toys from Grandma and Grandpa P ;)

Basketball Time (in this picture he is wearing his brother's shirt. Uncle A works at a shirt company and he made him one to fit with his favorite number (4) and color (yellow) with his name on the back!