our life with ducks: Our merry December

Here's a brief recap of our fun and exciting December. First, Rachel has been reunited with her beloved snow. Delicious stuff, as always. We've had at least six days with snowfall already this month--and several more predicted before January--so she's had lots of opportunities to play in (and eat) the snow. This photo was taken shortly before she told me she wanted to have a snowball fight. Our "snowball fight" lasted about thirty seconds--enough time for me to toss a snowball at her belly and miss, smacking her instead square in the face. She decided she doesn't like snowball fights after all. But maybe on her next birthday she'd like to try it again. (Yes, we're already making plans for her next birthday. Rachel knows there are a lot of things that will happen "when she's bigger," and her points of reference for that are "on my next birthday" and "when I go to high school." We've got substantial to-do lists for both of those occasions! Hope there's time for cake and algebra, respectively!)

Nathan hasn't really been out to play in the snow yet. We were sort of waiting to see if he'd walk soon, but he isn't showing much interest in bipedalism, so perhaps we'll get him out soon for some snow crawling. He has discovered the dress-up drawer this month, though! Actually, he doesn't care so much for the fairy wands, tutus, and clompy shoes. It's just this hat that has caught his interest. Can you blame him? It's quite a fun hat! He tries to get it on his own head, then holds it out to us and says, "Eh, eh, eh," until we help him put it on.

Then both kids had the opportunity to meet Santa when he stopped by Nana and Papa's house. Rachel was very glad to see him...

...but Nathan wasn't so sure! I think the arched-back-on-Santa's-lap photo is a required rite of passage, at least in our family, so it's good that Nathan carried on the tradition.