Christmas with the Fam

We just got back from our Christmas trip to visit my family (in the land where the internet still does not go, so no posts from me for over a week. . .) We had a fabulous time. I have so many pictures and things I could blog about. But for tonight, I'll just share some photos of our celebration with my brother and his family.

To start the festivities, all the kids got Santa hats.

Miss's was a little bit too big.

Lass's fit perfectly and she wore it without complaint. My little elf. . .

Miss had a great time opening her gifts this year.

She also had a great time checking out everyone else's loot. From her cousin's Elmo toy,

to my sister-in-law's new silverware,

and her slippers,

to my coffee mug, and everything else she could get into.

The next day she had a blast prancing around in my beautiful new boots (Did I mention before that I have a thing for shoes? My girl has it too).

We had lots of fun during the week. Miss had another encounter with Santa too, but I'm going to try to get a couple more photos before I blog about that. Over all, the trip was really, really wonderful. And we made it home last night with only one stop during a 10-hour drive. My girls are road warriors! More soon.

Pumpkins and Tiggers and Boots, Oh My!

We went to a brunch and pumpkin carving on Sunday. Miss was sort of interested in watching her daddy carve the pumpkin.

She was more interested in this large chunk of pumpkin "mouth"

Got it!!

She did enjoy the finished project and likes to look out the front door at the jack-o-lantern on the porch. The Daddy did a great job, I think.

She loves music and dancing and is always asking me to play her favorite songs on my computer (which she calls a "pooter"), pointing to it and saying, "Dance! Dance! Mooz! (music)" She also has her own mini laptop computer. The other day she was playing mooz on her pooter when she scooped up Tigger and started this great dance, sort of waltz, with him.

By the way, the song was "B-I-N-G-O and Bingo was his Name-O"

And did I mention I have a thing for shoes? I just love these boots.

I have a little problem.

Shoes.

It's not what you think. I admit, I used to have a bit of a shoe thing. I love shoes and have quite a collection. I so loved to buy and wear cute shoes. I have cute feet, so it worked out perfectly. I rarely ever spent much money on a pair of shoes. No Carrie Bradshaw $400 pair of Manolo Blahniks or anything. Heck, I've never even seen a pair of Manolo Blahniks. I don't usually even buy brand name shoes in a department store. I'm more of a Payless/Target kind of girl. Bargain shopper extraordinaire.

But I was kind of cured of my shoe thing when I started working full time in a federal prison. See, you have to wear sensible shoes to work in prison. They actually have rules about the shoes you have to wear. No open toes, no open heels. Fully enclosed feet only. And the shoes have to be comfortable enough to run in because you never know when you'll have to run to a body alarm to assist a fellow staff member. So I invested in a few pairs of sensible shoes for work and kind of lost my shoe love.

Well, it's back baby. Just, different.

It started with this pair of green tennies that I bought Miss back in the spring. They were too big at the time but they were on sale and I had a gift certificate. Plus they were just so stinkin' cute and I figured they would fit her in the fall. I was right. They do fit her. But as the weather has started to get chilly and she hasn't been wearing her sandals much anymore, I realized that green tennies just don't go with everything. So I needed to get her some more versatile play shoes and made a trip to the local Stride Rite outlet. And I got these.

Very practical. Cute enough. Definitely good for playing outside. Then I saw these, and had to get them too.

Hello adorable.

And of course, she needed some shoes that could be dressier or still used for indoor play shoes. What better than some Mary Janes?

Every girl has to have a good pair of black shoes and a good pair of brown.

And then, I found these.

What little girl doesn't need a pair of ruby slippers?? Miss loves hers!

And cowboy boots. Definitely a necessity. Did you notice how fabulous these were on the farm yesterday (check the pics if you didn't notice them)? All dusty and still completely adorable.

And of course it will be getting quite chilly again pretty soon, so these were a must have as well.

And of course I couldn't forget about these little piggies.

I got Lass's first pair of shoes too.

Although I've gone a bit shoe crazy for my girls recently, I still haven't lost my thriftiness. Most of these shoes came from Target. The more workhorse shoes that will be worn a lot for playing and will need to last and be super comfortable and supportive came from the Stride Rite outlet, but were still mostly on sale. It's been even more fun buying shoes for my girls than it used to be to buy them for myself!