Christmas Morning

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Wow!Two posts in one day. I don't think I have ever done that but Tis the Season I can not believe it is Christmas Eve. We have had a great day. Full of food, love, and memories. We let Reece open 1 package tonight, a bunny I bought her at the Junior League Christmas Affair. After we played a little while it was time to get our cookies and milk out for Santa and our carrots for the reindeer. Unfortunately the snow did not make it down here today but oh well. It was still a great day had by all. Now we have to get ready for Santa Claus to come.....




Merry Christmas To All And To All A Goodnight.

Reece Makes Sugar Cookies

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Reece's Gingerbread House

On Sunday my mom and I took Reece to the Austin Children's museum to decorate her first gingerbread house. (Matt was in San Antonio working on a commercial) Reece was not sure what to do at first but after watching me for a few minutes she figured it out and really got into it. I think she ate more candy than she used but we all had a lot of fun. I can't wait to do it again with her next year.





Can you believe Christmas is almost here? I really can't. This month has gone by so fast.
Last year we got a pink tree for Reece's room and I love it! I made some ornaments for it this year and added all her "first Christmas" ornaments from last year, including the adorable pink ballet pig from Aunt Lou Lou. We took her to pick out an ornament this year and plan to do that always. I also got her one in Galveston this summer and added it. Matt and I have a tradition of getting an ornament everytime we go on a trip. It started the day after we got engaged. We love to pull them out each year and talk about when we bought them. I am looking at the tree right now and it makes me smile. I have suggested we leave it up all year so we can enjoy it but Matt is not sold on the idea. Honestly, if we did there would not be enough room for all Reece's toys. I am embarrassed to say that we went overboard this year.

Santa Claus & Strep Throat

We took Reece to see Santa on Sunday. She was not a fan at all but we still got a cute picture. Friday she wrote her letter to Santa and after visiting him we headed to Macy's to mail our letter. For every letter mailed Macy's is donating a dollar to the Make A Wish Foundation! We had to participate.





And then.........
We got strep throat. I took to the doctor yesterday and sure enough, she has strep. She is acting better than I thought she would. She is not eating very much at all but all in all she is hanging in there. My mom came in to watch her so Matt and I could go to work. Hopefully she will be feeling better by Saturday because my mom and I are taking her to the Children's Museum to decorate a gingerbread house. It should be fun.
Well, she just woke up and is not too happy so I am going to go lay down with her. I have more to post but that will have to wait to another day.

Gingerbread People Cookies

Jessica Turner is hosting a blog cookie exchange today and I had to play along. Happy Holiday Baking. I know I will be in the kitchen this weekend making cookies for Reece's daycare party!


3 cups flour 1 egg
3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup molasses
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves Royal Icing
1 tablespoon ground ginger Food Coloring
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar


1) Stir together flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, & ginger; set aside. In a large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until combined. Add egg, molasses & vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can. Stir in the remaining flour. Cover & chill dough for 3 hours or overnight.
2) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured surface roll dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out gingerbread people with cookie cutters. Arrange cookies about 1 inch apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
3) Bake for 5-6 minutes or until edges are firm & bottoms are brown. Transfer to a wire rack & let cool. Pipe designs on cookies with tinted icing. Makes about 25 - 5 inch cookies.

Enjoy!

Busy Weekend

The Barkers had a very busy fun weekend. We are all getting into the Christmas spirit around here. Saturday we had Christmas pictures taken. Reece did really well and they turned out great. Then that night her friend from school, Khloe came over and spent the night. The girls had so much fun playing together. Tonight we went to Zilker Park to see the lighting of the tree with Khloe and Jessi and their parents. Reece spent all her time dancing and loved all the lights on the tree. Afterwards we all headed to Maudies for some much needed dinner.
Here are some pictures from our festive weekend.

New Traditions

I love family traditions. This week has been a fun week to start some new ones. I bought a Advent calender last year the day after Christmas and Reece loves it. Each night one of Santa's elves leave a M&M in the little compartment that matches the date. Reece loves it but does not understand why they are not in all of them.

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I also decided to get a new pair of jammies and let her open them on December 1st so she had warm Christmas jammies to wear all month long. I wrapped them up and she knew what to do to that paper. Such a big difference from last year or even her birthday.
She loves them but wanted me to read her a story not take pictures of her.


Last night we decorated our tree. Most of our ornaments are on the very top this year. Can you guess why?


Tonight after dinner we decided to give Reece her first Oreo. She had more fun dunking it in the milk than eating it. I do not think she knew what it was at first. Once I got her to taste it she liked it but I still thinks she prefers sugar cookies.



Hopefully- fingers crossed I will have some snow pictures to share tomorrow.