Little Fairy

 Last year for Christmas Allison was giving a pair of fairy wings.  Which broke almost immediately.  She happened to see them in the garbage one afternoon and was quite sad to see them go (they already had something else on them so there was no digging them out and rescuing them!).  Leading up to Christmas this year, if anyone asked what she wanted for Christmas she would always tell them 'Wings!' and then other random things.  So she was thrilled to get a new set of fairy wings from Nana, complete with other fairy accessories.  She has thoroughly enjoyed dancing around in her fairy costume - and her new wings have already outlasted her last ones by 700% - whew!

2012 Christmas Dresses

 Last winter my friend, Jodi, and I were very excited to find a great deal on Christmas dresses right after Christmas.  We got matching ones for our two girls.  Allison loved wearing her Christmas dress this year and thought it was pretty special that Bekah had a matching one!

 Of course we took had to get some pictures of the girls in their dresses.  We took them to a local park one day to get pictures - they were freezing!  Just in case you couldn't tell.  Allison refused to take her sweater off and clung to Bekah for dear life to keep her warm.  We sure do love having two special girls to dress up for the holidays!

Snowy Playdate

 Our trips to Alaska always feel too short.  Thankfully we managed to squeeze in one afternoon at my friend, Naomi's house.  Allison got to experience what real Alaskan kids do all day - they come in and out of the house - playing in the snow.  She followed Kaleb outside to play after lunch and had a great time traipsing around in the snow.  Kaleb was trying very hard to cut snow blocks and build a snow fort and Allison was doing her best to help him although I'm pretty sure she had no clue what she was doing.  Eventually she arrived at the back door chilled and ready to come in.  She was pretty excited to have had some time to play in the snow!

A White Christmas

Our Christmas morning did not turn out as expected.  After a very late (and fun!) party on Christmas Eve Allison slept in much longer than we expected.  Finally at 9:30 she was stirring enough that we got her up - but we were already late for breakfast in Anchorage so we let her find Baby Jesus in the manger then threw her in the car, gave her her stocking and took off.  We met up with my family for a traditional breakfast at Ihop.  Well, it is traditional for my family at least!   

 After breakfast we headed to my Aunt & Uncle's house and pretty much everyone (aside from my sleepy sister) decided to go have fun in the snow since it started dumping right as we left breakfast.  My Dad & Mark went on a snow biking adventure on fat tire bikes (I unfortunately don't have pictures of that!) and Mom, Allison & I headed up to a local school for sledding and swinging and a snowball fight.  The snow was wet and there was a lot of it.  We had a great time playing, especially since all the snow around my parents house was windblown & drifted up.

And Allison did get to open her presents.  Finally.  I don't have many pictures of the endeavor since she was afraid to get off my lap for fear of the dog.  But she loved all her presents, especially her Wonder Pets Beanie Babies & matching tu-tus for herself and her doll (named Allie).  She is wearing her tu-tu but wanted clothes on top of it - our girl is not accustomed to the Alaskan chill!

Puzzle Girl

 Grammy had a few Christmas puzzles that were just right for Allison while we were in Alaska & Allison got a puzzle for Christmas.  She loved putting them together, especially since she almost always had an audience to impress when working on them.....

 And apparently this time she got a little sassy about her expertise with Grammy!  Silly girl!

Aunts, Uncles, Grammy & Grr....

 Allison spent our entire time in Alaska with lots of Aunts & Uncles and grandparents to entertain her.  She loved all of the attention and was sure to be extra charming for all of them.  She had Uncle Keeton drawing pictures for her and writing letters....

 Auntie Brittney played 'princess games' with her on her iPad and Allison had her first sleep-over with Auntie Brittney - manicure, movie-watching and popcorn eating all included!

 Allison was pretty excited that Uncle Tills was going to be in Alaska, too.  She loves watching Uncle Tills play soccer and since he was one of the more familiar family members around she was extra cuddly for him! She wouldn't let him out of her sight until she had warmed up to the rest of the crew.  And Uncle Tills got to expand his skill set he's really quite good at helping fix Allison's doll's hair!

 We took a trip to visit Auntie Brittney and Grr at their offices.  Allison played with Grr's Playmobil in his office and drew on his iPad.  Auntie Brittney loaded her up with candy.....a piece in every pocket!

 Finally, even when everyone was doing something else Allison loved just being near them.  Auntie Hannah drew pictures for Allison to color while the adults played a game together.  We were all pretty spoiled with all the extra entertainment around for our trip!

Alaskan Cousins

 One of the best parts of a trip to Alaska is time with far away cousins.  Parker, Noah & Savannah were great cousins & friends for Allison during our trip.  They exposed her to all sorts of new and important things like Lego soccer, Nerf guns & dice games.  She loved spending time with her cousins and forlornly told us yesterday about her friend Savannah who lives in Alaska which is far away.  If only it weren't so.....

 I loved the kids table on Christmas Eve - all four of the kiddos working away.  Parker received a new Lego calendar for Christmas Eve and promptly wrote every one's birthdays in it.  When we received one in a Christmas party here in Oregon Allison immediately wanted to write in it just like Parker did!

 I love Savannah's style!  A scoop skirt with jeans and mukluk slippers - such an Alaskan!

 And Savannah got her very own copy of 'The Big Green Pocketbook' complete with her own purse.  Allison was thrilled to read the book with her.

 And Noah, the goofball.  He is so full of funny expressions and was so good at making the girls laugh!  There was never a dull moment with this kid around, especially when he had a captive audience.

We can't wait for another trip to see the cousins!