Fun with Christmas presents

Santa, family, and friends were all very good to Mati this year. I think you could photograph our living room for a toy catalog. Two of her favorite presents were from her grandparents. Grandma and Grandpa A. gave her a kitchen, which she loves. It is the first toy she goes to when she gets up each morning. Special thanks to Grandpa for putting the kitchen together. Here is a video of her "cooking."
And her other favorite toy is a cradle made by Grandpa Bernie. She does not quite understand that you are not supposed to sit in the cradle on top of the baby doll to care for it but its cute nonetheless. Here is a video of Mati "feeding" the baby.

Sledding... well sort of.

Doug came in from work Monday wanting to take Mati sledding around the yard. The problem... we don't have a sled. Here is Doug's invention... laundry basket! With the exception of snow coming in the sides, it worked really well. Fortunately for Mati some friends are letting us borrow their toddler sled for the winter so her days of laundry basket sledding are over.

Wonderland of Lights

Mati and I went to the zoo tonight for the Wonderland of Lights. The zoo decorates every tree and structure with lights of all colors and installs speakers in the trees so you can hear Christmas music wherever you go. They only do this for a few weeks near Christmas so we took advantage of the less than frigid night to check it out. Not too many animals were outdoors (we saw the Oryx, monkeys, penguins, and snow leopard), but the lights were the real show. Mati smiled the whole way and must have said "Zhat" meaning "What's that?" a hundred times.

Elf Yourself

We created an Elf Yourself dance for our family. Here's the link if you want a laugh at the disco version... http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/n8j7TRUUOGZLQyMVGykn
And here's the link to the singing version (my favorite!)... http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/IHMdAvK1kyrhHYSb

Check, Check, One, Two...

Mati was hanging out with Daddy in our music/work-out room in the barn. Doug turned on the keyboard, microphone, and speakers and Mati knew just what to do. Here is a 20 second video of Mati on the mic.

Surprise!

After several years of working at the GRHV my dad is finally retiring. His colleagues arranged a surprise party for him and boy was he surprised! It was a great time!  Here is the crowd gathered to celebrate...

Here he is just after the surprise...

And here he is after another big surprise, Scott flew in from Denver for the party!

And finally... the cake I made for the party.