Christmas Decorating

I am a fan of black friday shopping...and while I had no stores to shop at (and didn't see any good deals online)-we skipped it this year and got straight into getting ready for Christmas.

We listened to Christmas music and made Christmas Crafts (here is our advent calendar made out of tins -thanks mom and Lacie!)

We cooked pies, yams, mashed potatoes and more (here is our attempt at making Penuche--a type of candy that my grandma used to make, and still I have never made a successful batch-but we have fun trying, and testing it frequently to see if it is ready)

Ate ice cream (I told Rachel she could have a few marshmellows, and when I turned my back she dumped TONS in her bowl--I wanted to get mad, but all I could do was laugh.)

Put up Christmas lights, and decorated our tree (This is our dental school tree...that I thought would be long gone by now...but I guess we will use it just one more year).

It will probably be a few weeks until my next post--but it will be worth it because it will include pictures of us in

HAWAII!!

School Show

Last week Rachel's school had a special show for Native American Appreciation month. Each class sang a different song in Navajo. Rachel leared all the words to Mary had a little Lamb-all in navajo. The kids in her class all got to wear their special clothes and jewelry and had their hair donw up in the traditional navajo bun. Rachel obviously doesn't have any tribal clothes to wear--but she asked if she could wear her hair in the navajo bun and so I tried for her (and then her teacher thankfully was happy to re-do it because it needed some help :) I didn't get a picture of it--but I found this picture on the internet to show you what it looks like. Little boys and girls with long hair wear their hair like this frequently.

I have an amazing video of Rachel singing Mary Had a Little Lamb and another one of her saying the entire pledge of Allegience in Navajo...but have had no luck uploading them...so just imagine how cool it is :-) I will keep trying....maybe someday they will upload.

You know it is a good day...

When all of your cousins happen to be in town for a wedding

and you are all hanging out at grandma and grandpa's house

And you realize they are setting up a fair just down the street

And there are TONS of bouncy things...

Bounce houses.....

Slides.........

a petting zoo........

And BEST of all --COTTON CANDY!!

I am a sucker for cotton candy-probably because there is a link between eating cotton candy and being somewhere super fun! (you don't get cotton candy on the run of the mill day, only at fairs, and parties, and especially at the 4th of july!)

Sam's little brother's wedding

A little delayed, I forgot I hadn't posted these pictures.

The cousins enjoyed seeing David and Mckenzie...but I think their favorite part was spinning around in their pink dresses. Rachel is totally embarrassed that I posted this picture--which I thought was funny.

and to finish it off, a pretty cute daddy daughter pic.

Halloween

4 Things that made our Halloween Unique:

#1 Rachel got to wear her Halloween Costume to school --which after talking to friends and family elsewhere--is a rare thing--everyone else I talked to said their kids weren't allowed to wear their costumes to school

Costume contest at school (no boundries to your creativity--kids were given one rule-remember there are young kids at the school, so try to to wear things that will scare them...but as you can see: blood, wedgies, masks etc were all fair game) These were the winners for each grade 1st-6th
My Favorite is Edward scissorhands--I don't know how many other kids even know who he was (Rachel sure doesn't) but he looked awesome-and it was completly home-made- which always wins extra points.

#2 We spent Halloween on the slopes.

(it is very rare that any ski area is open this early, but Wolf Creek in Southern Colorado got over 2 feet in the storm this week--so they opened and we couldn't pass it up. )

It took most of the morning for Rachel to remember how, and to get to where she left off last year. We went doen the bunny hill a few times and then headed off to a bigger lift (which in hind-sight was done a bit prematurely, and we regretted shortly after as Rachel spent much time laying in the snow, cold, and in uncomfortable positions, which caused much complaining and ended in Sam carrying her down the rest of the mountain-which I was very impressed with by the way:)

We then spent the rest of the time going down the bunny hill over, and over, and over--and Rachel remembered how much fun it is to ski when you don't fall and practically had to be dragged out of there when the time came.

*next time Rachel will go back to ski school for half-day so Sam and I can enjoy something other than the bunny hill.

#3 Went out to dinner, & Rachel got to wear her costume, and Rachel's favorite-we were served by a waitress dressed as Minnie Mouse

#4 Tick-or-Treated in a completely Random neighborhood in Durango
Let it be said that when I first told Rachel that it snowed enough to go skiing she was just as giddy as Sam was (one aspect where she is such a daddy's girl :)--and was only slightly deterred by the fact that she would miss trick-or-treating. She promptly started coming up with ways that we could make it work including

• how 'bout--we go skiing, and then drive back to Chinle to go trick-or-treating?

and after that was quickly shot down --she didn't give up until we compromised that we could find a neighborhood somewhere in Colorado to trick or treat.

Yes! it was a success!

I can't wait to see everyone else's pictures-so I will be blog lurking and anxiously awaiting their postings :-)