So it begins...

Today was our first Christmas party of the season; the girls were so excited to see Santa, even though Juliette told me "I've seen him before. Lots of times. Five times, I'm five and a half." Course, then she wouldn't walk over to him when he called her up to get her gift; Cosette, on the other hand, would have gone up for Juliette if we'd have let her!

The closest we got to getting a family portrait;


Santa has arrived, and the girls can barely contain their excitement:



After the party we had a quiet dinner and then broke open one of the gifts; a puzzle of the map of the United States. Juliette picked it as a raffle prize; I'm happy she won it (thanks to Nonna's winning ticket!) because she was coveting it all evening. She kept asking Greg to show her where the US was and he kept saying, as he pointed to the picture on the puzzle box, "this is the US!" But then we were both quite impressed when Juliette immediately picked up Texas and told us "This is Texas!" We were filled with pride, and I was thinking about what a good elementary school we have... until she explained "Every day I see it on Sponge Bob!" Who said t.v. wasn't educational?

Anyway, we had such fun with the puzzle that I think we are now old enough to start a family game night. It is true that the second time we put the puzzle together, Cosette and her father were horsing around waiting for Juliette and I to finish, just so they could knock it down. But hey, ultimately, we all had fun in our own way!