Happy Holidays

I was so excited when I saw this placed on the table!!! Schyler is 9 and I've been wondering if she still believes. She's been on the fence. She say's she doesn't but this tells me she does! She wrote Santa a note:

Dear Santa: I worked very hard on these pictures and Japanese braiding so I hope you like it.

Sincerely,
Schyler

p.s. you can keep the pen too. Please write back.

One picture was for Santa and the other for Mrs. Clause. Schyler was still working on finishing the Japanese braiding when I took these photos so it's not included. We also had to make sure we left cookies and milk for him too!

It's on! Schyler wants to start running with me this Spring so she can be ready for the Boilermaker 5K and a 5K race that I run in Ilion. She explained to me she needs running clothes though like I have. Well here they are some underarmour and nikey shirts to wick the sweat when she's running her tail off in those races!

Yah, when I saw this hat at Limited Too it had Schyler's name all over it! She's wore it for 2 days straight now.

Ipod Nano was a great gift, plus she got an arm band for running with her musical buddy.

It's not very often we see Brandon (her step-brother) but I needed to get a shot of them together. Last one was on her 5th birthday party. Of course he was holding her then. Now she barely would stand near him. Must be she's getting too old to care LOL!
Kayla getting excited about a gift.
Um, yah, she's not going to like this one but it shows what she was excited about LOL!

Our ornaments

I love ornaments that have meaning to them. I try to get an ornament from every place Mike & I visit. Sometimes that's not possible but here are a few that I love. When we were in Paris I found this metal knick knack of the Eiffel Tower. I knew I could run a piece of gold thread through it and it would be a perfect ornament!We got this one in London at the Windsor Palace gift shop. I paid a lot of money for this more than I would for any other ornament but I LOVED it and it was the only ornament I found in London that I really, really liked.

Schyler's godmother always gets her an ornament every year. Usually they have meaning too. This was last years. It's an MP3 Player and it plays Christmas songs. She got her this one because she knew Santa was bringing her an ipod.
Here's another she got for her. When Schyler was little, she would get her angel ornaments that said "godchild" on them.

Of course we would have a skater ornament for my favorite ice skater!

My sister went Christmas shopping in PA and went to the ornament store. So on Christmas Eve everyone got their ornaments. It was fun opening them to see what everyone got. I screamed "I was always Alvin"! She say's, "I know"! When we were kids, we watched the cartoon Alvin and the Chipmunks. I was always Alvin the leader of the pack LOL! My brother was Simon because he was smart and my sister was Theodore, because he was the baby and so was she.

Schyler got this gorgeous ice skate!

Of course Mike got beer! LOL!

Decorating the tree

Schyler was decorating the tree and I decided to practice some indoor shooting. I didn't mind the yellow from all the lights in these.