We landed in Omaha Saturday evening at 5:30. It was already dark by the time we left the airport, and Annalie was extremely disappointed when we told her she couldn’t play in the snow till the next day. We consoled her with a promised visit to meet her new cousin right after we dropped our luggage off at my parents’ house. As we drove down the interstate she opened her mouth wide in a show of speechless delight at each new expanse of snow.

When we stopped at Godfather’s to pick up pizza on the way to my brother’s, I literally had to grab her to keep her from rushing into a mountain of snow that had been plowed over to the side of the parking lot.

AK is extremely adorable and also a champion sleeper. She was asleep the whole hour we were there, even though we were passing her around and taking pictures. Annalie was totally smitten, asking to hold her twice, kissing and hugging her gently, and cooing over how adorable she was. I hope they’ll be great friends someday.

Annalie drew this on her dry-erase board during church yesterday morning (I snapped a quick shot with my phone before she erased it). It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her draw people with clothes rather than simple stick figures. I asked her later if she had seen that drawing somewhere before and was remembering it, thinking maybe she’d seen a picture somewhere in church that morning. She said, “It’s the drawing you did for me, remember?” I showed her how to draw a simple stable scene almost a week ago. I was rather amazed she held that image in her head for so long and did a fair job of recreating it without having it right in front of her.

And then after church and Sunday School were over, it was time to go back to my parents’ house and get Annalie suited up for PLAYING IN THE SNOW, YAYYY!

Annalie’s snow pants were a Christmas present two years ago. I’m kind of amazed that they still fit as well as they do. The coat is one we bought on clearance when we had to make that unexpected trip to Omaha for Troy’s dad’s funeral almost two years ago. It was huge when we bought it, and now it fits her perfectly. Time flies.

I think the only thing that would have made Annalie happier about the snow is if it had been snowing while she was playing. She didn’t worry about it much, she just made her own snow by throwing it up in the air.

Then she figured out she could pick up pieces of snow and throw them at Grampaw.

But before she got the chance, Grampaw made the first move!

Annalie got him back eventually, though.

Annalie was running and slipping and sliding all over the place. She kept going down in the snow, laughing her head off. She was getting pretty wet but she didn’t care a bit. I’m glad she got the chance to play in the snow before it got super cold (it’s 4 F/-16 C as I write this Monday evening).

Annalie and I made it safely to Omaha. We dropped our bags off at my parents’ house and then took pizza over to my brother’s so we could meet my niece, who is adorable and a champion sleeper—she didn’t wake up once during the hour we were there even though we were passing her around and taking photos. Now my mom is reading a bedtime story to Annalie while my dad drives me slightly nuts by changing the TV channel every 13 seconds during the commercials and their crazy cat meows at me for sitting in her spot on the loveseat.

I’ll be checking in again soon, but for now I think I’m gonna go to bed early and enjoy my vacation. Peace! (And Happy Hanukkah!)

We took this photo yesterday around 4:30 in the afternoon, about to head to the post office and mail most of our Christmas packages. Do I look tired? Because I was. I’ve been spending hours and hours in the kitchen in the past few days, baking and cooking and packaging and labeling. I’ve actually been enjoying myself immensely, which is probably no surprise. As we all know, I love to bake and cook. I even figured out a way to watch shows on iTunes while I baked without endangering my laptop.

Plastic wrap on the keyboard! Works like a charm.

I’ve been doing as much of this stuff during the day as I can, but for some reason Annalie has been totally uninterested in helping me with any of it. Normally she loves helping me in the kitchen so I don’t really know why she’s hasn’t wanted to help lately. I’ve coaxed her to hang out with me in the kitchen a couple of times by suggesting she draw some Christmas pictures for friends and family.

This is a drawing of Annalie hugging a giant candy cane. Cracked me right up.

And when I’ve let her watch shows or play games on the laptop, or offered her hot cocoa, Annalie will hang out for a while. But she never wants to stay in the kitchen for long. The Christmas tree has been the source of much inspiration in Annalie’s play, and the centerpiece of several elaborate games, so she likes playing upstairs in the living room most of the time right now. I don’t want to spend all day downstairs while my kid is upstairs, so I’ve been putting off a lot of the baking till after Annalie’s in bed.

I don’t mind late nights, and baking late at night is kind of a hobby of mine. But because most of the gifts we’re giving this year are homemade goodies, I’ve been doing a LOT of baking. Since Annalie and I going to be out of town for Christmas, I had a deadline for getting everything baked and shipped. That has led to some very late nights recently. Coffee consumption has been higher than usual. I’ve been a bit loopier than normal.

For example, one night I had the bright idea to use address labels instead of tape to seal the wax paper wrapping around the homemade granola bars. You know, those free address labels you always get in the mail around Christmas? I’ll never use them all, since we’re moving soon, and I figured they were more festive than tape. In the morning I looked at the pile of address-labeled granola bars and had to laugh. It looked like I was very concerned about my granola bars always being able to find their way back home.

This idea was definitely a good one though. I’ve been saving all my plastic peanut butter and mayonnaise jars for a while, ever since I read somewhere that they were good for storing art supplies. It’s a good thing I never got around to organizing my art supplies because they made great containers for the pretzel pralines and candied nuts I made to give as gifts. I was originally planning to use some of the glass pickle and jam jars that I’ve also been saving for ages, but glass is heavier and breakable. The plastic jars might not be quite as pretty as glass, but they’re lightweight and sturdy, perfect for shipping.

I might have had a little too much fun drawing the labels for these. The candy-cane one is my favorite.

One thing I made a ton of that I haven’t written much about is the World’s Best Apricot Cookies. I’ve mentioned them a few times, and some of you have emailed me asking for that recipe. I will get to that eventually, I promise.

I painted this ornament a few weeks ago when I just wanted something small to paint while supervising Annalie’s painting one day. I meant to put it in my Etsy shop before now, but I totally forgot about it till I was looking for something in my cupboard during one of those late-night baking sessions. It’s listed there now if anyone wants it.

Bex saw this one on Flickr and claimed it right away. It’s also in my shop, just waiting for Bex to buy it.

And now I have to go finish my laundry and dig out Annalie’s snow pants and pack our suitcases because tomorrow we’re headed to Omaha where we’ll probably have a very white Christmas at my parents’ house with its new siding.

Photos taken by my mom