It's the most wonderful time of the year

I can't get this song out of my head these days. I'm constantly whistling it, singing it, sometimes even as I walk around Walmart (whistling, not singing). That song sometimes makes me think of my Dad because they used it for this Office Max commercial years ago for a back-to-school promo and there's a dad shopping with his two teenage kids and he's dancing around the cart tossing pens and notebooks and such, clearly thrilled that school is about to start, while his kids are sulkily following the cart from behind. He told me about the commercial a couple years before I actually saw it, and I have to say the picture my Dad painted for me with his description was much funnier than the actual commercial.



I finally got into the Christmas spirit the other day after a really fun afternoon of Christmas-candy making with some friends. While we were all indoors recreating Williams-Sonoma's peppermint bark (Natalie's vision and we're all so glad she had it), our town was dumped on with big beautiful snowflakes. It was so pretty outside! It seemed like the perfect day to put on some Christmas music and decorate the house.





The next day we took the kids outside to play in the snow. Bobby and I were not at all surprised at Franny's eagerness to dive into the snow. She loves to get wet and dirty and doesn't care about being too cold usually. Sophie, on the other hand, did surprise us with her aversion to the cold snow. At first she was having a good time, but that all changed when the smallest little bit of snow crept between her gloves and coat sleeve and touched her skin. She could not be consoled, so we stuck her in this sleigh for a few minutes to watch us have some fun. (Sophie has a mean mommy.)


At first she pouted and tried to freeze us out. When that didn't work, it turned ugly.



Naturally, Franny could not be bothered with photographs, thus these lovely pictures...



We tried to appease Miss Sophie with a sleighride, but she wasn't too happy when she fell out of the sleigh into the cold wet snow. Franny of course had a ball. Poor Sophie, but I just love figuring out their little personalities and how they can be so different!