Christmas

We're posting this a few weeks after Christmas, but we have been fairly busy and are just now getting to the new pictures.

Karina has joined a local Girl Scout troop and they made their own reindeer antlers in preparation for a caroling trip to a nursing home. Here she is in her uniform and antler costume getting ready to go and sing.

Derek is fascinated with his tie and insists on wearing it most days. I think he has even worn it to bed before.  He is probably more stylish than I am.

We had made a trip to the DC Temple for our annual trip to see the lights and listen to a concert by some very talented teenage cello players. Unfortunately, the day we went (Dec. 23) was rainy and we didn't check the camera battery which had run out, so we didn't get to take any pictures.

Here are our kids on Christmas Eve with our very tall tree that never did drink much of the water we provided. Afterward, I noticed that there was some kind of oil in our tree stand, so maybe we had poisoned our tree all Christmas (we have a new stand for next year that we are storing away from any oil).

Lydia loves her Rapunzel dress.

Karina was very excited about this beautiful dress she got as a Christmas gift.

We have cute kids.

Derek was thrilled when he opened his backpack on Christmas morning. Now he can join in with his sisters when they get ready for school every morning.

Karina got a Barbie dollhouse and some Barbie dolls to go with it.

Lydia dolled up in her new Snow White dress:

And Karina got an Elsa dress. Here are our junior Disney princesses hugging.

Karina took this picture of Tanja.

Derek thought his pirate dress-up clothes were so silly.

So did Karina.

Pirates are even sillier when they are wearing sunglasses.

Snow White Lydia started rocking out with the new microphone.

Derek being mischievously handsome with his sweater and tie.

And riding Karina horsey style with his Thomas the Tank Engine hoodie...and his tie.

Karina had to pick an artist to make the subject of a report in school and she chose Jackson Pollock. As part of her report, she needed to do a piece of artwork in the style of her report subject. I'm glad she picked Pollock since it is reasonably easy to create paint splatter, and we were all proud of the results of her artwork when she was done. Maybe we can sell it to a modern art museum for a few million dollars...