Klassen's Christmas

This year we celebrated Christmas on Boxing Day with my side of the family. Melissa gravitated towards the tree loaded with presents as soon as we arrived!

Present opening was a blast... here Melissa just received a lava lamp from her cousins...

Matching puppies for Melissa & Lexi...

Xander and his Hex Bug from Melissa...

Melissa received a renewed subscription for Chickadee magazine from Uncle Dan & Aunt Nikki. She looks forward to it arriving every month throughout the year...

Sitting down for our delicious family dinner...

Christmas Day at the Thomas' '10

This year we celebrated on Christmas day with Ken's family. It wasn't more than a minute after we arrived that Melissa was eagerly sitting with the presents ready to unwrap.

Pop received an original piece of art for hanging in his newly finished "man cave". The picture is of him in his Metropolitan Nash car while Melissa looks on...

Melissa hardly took much pause between present opening...

Zhu Zhu pets!

Helping Nana...

Daddy got to help dress her new Lalaloopsy doll...

Later in the afternoon the rest of the family arrived, GG (Great Grandma) is given a cookie mix that Melissa made for a gift...

Cousin Katie & GD (Great Granddad) get a Lalaloopsy demonstration...

Christmas at our place '10

Christmas morning finally arrived. Melissa awoke to full stockings on the mantle and a great increase in presents under the tree!

A cheer for the additional presents!!!

Pepper & Crash go to town opening up their catnip Christmas toy...

Silly bands...

A happy dance for a new Wii game - Kirby's Epic Yarn!

And a much wanted Lalaloopsy Doll...

Such a joy it was watching Melissa open her presents!

We quickly got cleaned up and ready to go to Nana & Pop's for the Thomas' Christmas :)

Disney On Ice

Earlier this month we went to the Disney on Ice show.

Waiting for the show to start!

Some original Disney characters came out to welcome us to the show...

The story progresses and each princess takes their turn dancing in a song with their prince charming...

The classic Disney characters were used throughout the show...

Tinkerbell (one of Melissa's favorites) appeared in one or two of the larger group dances...

An appearance from the characters of Toy Story...

One of the last songs, which had lots of the characters in it...

Melissa thoroughly enjoyed the show!

Mini Christmas Tree 2010

Christmas tradition for Melissa is posing with our 3' Christmas tree. Certainly shows her growth progress :)

Here is last year's blog entry, along with the links to previous years.

Christmas Card

We have begun setting up for Christmas here... and unpacked some Christmas stickers. Melissa got busy in her room and made this Christmas card for me!

Translation:

To Donna

From Melissa

Happy Christmas Mommy

From Melissa

Ice Skating Lessons

Late October Melissa started her first ice skating lessons. We have been so thrilled that she has taken the sport on with such enthusiasm and she seems to have a great sense of balance which certainly comes in handy. Below are pics & videos I took from some of the first classes.

Playing "Red light / Green light"

Giving me the "I love you" symbol through the glass...

Learning to skate backwards by doing the boogie!

Playing "Simon Says"...

Learning to skate backwards...

Please let me know if these videos are unaccessible, as I have tried a new level of privacy "Unlisted" on YouTube.

Boo Shoot

Melissa went to Revival Arts Studio again this year for her Halloween costume pics...

Halloween

Trying something new here... Melissa is sitting beside me and is going to provide the captioning for these pictures :)

"Mommy & I are getting seeds out of a pumpkin"

"Our pumpkin is glowing in the dark"

"I am posing with the candy from Nana" (& Pop)

"Kim is asking if I am the same Munchkin that lives across the street"

"I am on Kim's driveway dressed up as Hello Kitty"

"I am at Axel's house to get candy, and I am not scared"

"I like trick-or-treating!"

"I am trick-or-treating at a pirate's house with my cousin Xander"

"All three cousins getting candy"

"The End"

Mann Farms

We enjoyed a beautiful fall afternoon at Mann Farms with our friends. We started out our visit with Papa John's Corn Maze...

The kids started out with so much energy :)

Along the way they had signs that we had to write down the animals we found and some letters, to unscramble...

The halfway point where there was an option to take the short way, or long way. We did both :)

Evidence we made it to the end! We spent about 1.25 hour in the corn field, and the kids were ready for something else!

Resting their legs in the pumpkin field...

Next we went on a barrel train ride around the farm...

And then petted a few animals in the Critter Corral...

The kids very much enjoyed the playground...

Free-range turkeys & all!