Holiday Cheer

It's the holidays!  Valerie found an old potato lying around, and presto-change-o, we have some neat new stamps to play with.     

Later, Elias (Noah's school friend) and his parents came over for a Christmas/Hannukah afternoon celebration.  First off for an afternoon of fun: cookie making.  Last time we made cookies, we tried the typical old-fashioned sugar cookie; the European contingent declared this much too sweet.  This time, we used a French "sable" recipe... much better.

Then, we decorated the cookies:

                                               

And here are the boys proudly showing off their handiwork.... and patiently, patiently waiting to eat the cookies as soon as we turn our backs:

"Good job, Elias.  High-five!"

After the cookies, we moved on to chocolate... The game of "dreidel" seemed appealing at first...

However, after a few turns, and a few attempts to spin the dreidel, they started asking about when they could eat the chocolate.  As soon as they learned that they couldn't eat the chocolate until the game was over, they rapidly decided that the game should be over as soon as possible.

There was then a brief interlude making macaroni necklaces...

And then the two boys returned to the most popular toy of the day: the toy cars.

The toy cars are so exciting, and there are only 14 or 15 of them, so sharing was a bit difficult.  However, any and all disputes were happily resolved with a hug:

After a little dinner, it was time for Elias and his parents to go home.

Happy holidays!