Christmas card and letter (electronic version)

Isabel and Josiah's Christmas present to us was cooperating for adorable Christmas photos! Thanks kids! We couldn't have asked for anything better.

Our favorite Christmas memory this year was that on Christmas morning, after about a half hour of opening presents, Luke and I noticed that Isabel was not in the living room with us anymore. We called for her and her little voice answered from her bedroom upstairs.  We crept up the stairs to see what she was doing and there she was, sitting in her pink chair in her bedroom quietly looking at books by herself (looking at old books, mind you, not even new ones that she had just gotten for Christmas).  When she left the living room to find her "quiet book corner," there were still literally dozens of unopened presents under the tree. We just love our little bookworm!  We realized she must have been a bit overwhelmed and this is how she dealt with it (we are so thankful that she deals with it by retreating quietly instead of by acting out or getting hyperactive!). From there, we took things slow with opening presents and just did a few at a time over the next several days.  Josiah was at a fun age this year and tried to join in the present-opening fun, particularly by trying to chew all the packages open! :)

We hope that God has blessed your Christmas season and that 2011 is filled with more blessing than 2010!

Much love,
The Christensons
Kristy, Luke, Isabel, Josiah, and Ginger

You'd better not cry

Last year, we were in Florida when we visited Santa Claus. Isabel was just barely two years old, and a little apprehensive when we were standing in line. However, as long as Mommy, Daddy, and lovey were with her, she was content to sit for the photo (on Mommy's lap, not Santa's lap, mind you) with a very serious expression on her face. No smile, but no tears.

This year, we were hoping for much better results, and for a photo of just our children with Santa, with no parents in the picture.  We had high hopes as we were standing in line, because Isabel could barely contain herself, she was so excited to see Santa. And lovey was safely hidden away in the bottom of the stroller, not mentioned or asked for.  Things took a turn for the worse when we arrived at the front of the line and Daddy walked up and placed Josiah in Santa's lap. In a chain reaction, first Josiah began to cry, then Isabel began to back away and cry, and Santa was clearly not going to be okay with us just thrusting a screaming 3-year old at him when he was trying to hold onto Josiah (who, to his credit, stopped crying pretty quickly). So I grabbed lovey, handed it to Isabel, grabbed her and sat down next to Santa, hoping she would at least stop crying if she was in my lap, but no such luck....

We now have a classic meltdown Santa picture!  You will notice she is missing one shoe...that came flying off as we were nudging (dragging?) her little body close enough to Santa to get a photo!  At least we were entertaining to those in line behind us!  You know we were memorable because about an hour later, we ran into another family in the elevator at the mall, and they said "We were just behind you in line. We have a crier too!"

Next year, I swear, no mommies or daddies in this household will be allowed in Santa pictures. If the kids are not OK sitting with him by themselves, then one or both of them will not be in the photo and it will just be tough luck! :)

Merry Christmas!

A little dusting of snow this weekend

So we had a little snowstorm (rather, a MAJOR snowstorm) this weekend.  I knew it was big when we opened the blinds and found our windows downstairs completely covered with snow.

The next day I (Luke) decided to brave the outdoors (it was 0 degrees with a brisk northerly wind) and shovel the driveway.  I do not own a snowblower.  I'm not sure that my back will ever recover.  There were 5 foot drifts at the end of the 3 car driveway.

 This is what the snow typically looks like after a big snowstorm in March.  Not sure what this will look like come this March.

Notice the snow piled as high as the fence........honey who let the dogs out?

Carved a little path to our neighbors.

Ginger always appreciates the freeway I carve out for her in the backyard.  

Lots of snow.

Ginger was actually in this picture.

If we are not careful we might loose Isabel in this canyon.

Finally....lots and lots of snow!



Applause, please!

Mommy and Camille have both been working hard on this one with Josiah. Yesterday, he did it for Camille for the first time, and now he does it on command (and does it a lot even when we do not tell him to!)...with a look on his face that says "I am pretty cool!"

(Video clip will appear below - you may need to wait a few minutes depending on your download speed).



Show me your smile

Today was Isabel's first visit to the dentist and she did SO GREAT!

Yesterday, she accompanied me to my dentist appointment, and everyone in the office was completely enamored with her. She was on her very best behavior and I was so proud of her (actually wished I could take that behavior, clone it, and apply it to all our time at home together!) Yesterday, on our way to the dentist;s office, I gave her a choice if she wanted to go first, or if she wanted me to.  She she was still a little apprehensive about the dentist at that point, so she was very adamant that she wanted me to go first. "I am just going to watch you, Mommy. Then it will be my turn." So that is what we did. 

When I was the one in the big chair, my hygienist was so helpful and interacted with Isabel the whole time, explaining what she was doing all along the way with Mommy's teeth. Isabel was very talkative with her as well, and just sat on the floor in the corner, talking to us, and playing with her bracelet and bouncy ball they had let her pick out from the prize box. When the hygienist told Isabel she was going to floss Mommy's teeth, Isabel got very excited and said "Do you want to see the dental floss in my Dora book?" She proceeded to get out her "Dora goes to the dentist" book, and flipped through each page one by one, mumbling, "It's not on here" as she turned to each new page, until she got to the right page, and said "There it is! See! She has floss just like yours!" and came over to excitedly show the hygienist (SO cute!)

So today, I picked her up from school early, and she had no hesitation or apprehension as she announced to the class "I am going to the dentist!" Then she turns to me and says "Mommy, will you hold my hand at the dentist?" I told her that of course I would.  When we got there, I grabbed lovey just in case she needed it, but she never asked for it the entire time we were there.  She waltzed right in like she owned the place, climbed herself up in the chair when they asked her to, put on the sunglasses (see below) to shield her eyes from their "special light", and was very brave when they reclined the chair all the way back and scooted her tiny little body all the way up so her head could rest on the pillow.  She had just a couple of minutes when the hygienist tried to start looking at her teeth, where a look of sheer panic came over her face and she shook her head and would not open her mouth. But she was not doing this in a defiant way, and neither a tear was shed nor a tantrum thrown.

With just some minor coaxing by the hygienist ("Are you sure you don't have any teeth in there? Oh! I see two of them peeking out! Are there more in there?" etc), Isabel gradually got comfortable enough to not only let them count her teeth (which was their ultimate goal for her first visit), but also to let them do a full polish with bubble-gum flavored toothpaste, and even to floss all her teeth!  Needless to say, I was very impressed. As were both the hygienist and the dentist. Both of them said that she is the youngest child to have ever let them do a full cleaning and exam on her first visit.  Way to go, my growing-up-way-too-fast baby girl!

And the moral of the story is that she has NO cavities!  They are very happy with our tooth care routine for her at home and said to keep it up. They are also not concerned at all about the alignment of her upper and lower teeth being negatively affected by the fact that she still sucks on her middle two fingers on her left hand. They said we don't need to worry about trying to get her to stop doing that anytime soon. I was certainly relieved by that and feel she will eventually and gradually wean herself from that.

What do jumping, remote controls, and broccoli have in common?

The three things in the title of this post may seem completely unrelated, but they all played a key role in entertaining my children yesterday, on a very blustery, cold, wintry day.  On days like these, the kids have to find activities to entertain themselves and one another. Activities such as...

Isabel dancing and jumping in front of Josiah as he bounces vigorously in his stationary jumper...

(I love seeing them interact together in this way. His gaze constantly follows her every move when they are in the same room together).

Practicing hard at following in his daddy's footsteps as a future channel surfer....

And yes, at dinnertime, they were both entertained by eating broccoli. This was Josiah's first time having it and he had a blast. I could barely keep up with cutting the flowery parts off and breaking it into small enough pieces for him. And not only did Isabel eat a bunch of broccoli, but she ate a very hearty helping of cooked carrots too. I totally live by the philosophy of "keep offering vegetables" because every now and then, like tonight, she will completely shock me by eating and liking them!