Fun With The Flipcam

I came across this Flipcam video from Lauren. Pretty cute.

This Reminds Me Of...

Veronica's unusual look.
They're not exactly ruby red slippers, but there are certainly some eye-catching red stripes on Veronica's newest pair of tights.

And when I first saw Veronica's red-and-white-striped tights, I was reminded of something else (see photo below). Yes, comparing them to that witch who was killed by a falling house is a bit cruel, but we're not talking naughty or nice, we're talking fashion.

For Veronica, it's more than just the leggings, too. She has a whole matching outfit (pictured at right) that she's proudly showing off. So, the next time you seeing her wearing it, try not to think of the sight of another pair of striped leggings, forever immortalized in "The Wizard of Oz."

Olivia's Gift

Look what Olivia made me for Christmas. Wow!

Presents From Santa

Lauren was all smiles about her cat slippers.


Olivia (left) got silver boots. Julia shows off tiger stripes.


Emily (left) got a pair of warm, grey slippers
while Veronica was surprised with Hello Kitty.

Some Terrific Surprises

The girls show off their gifts from afar.
The girls had some additional gifts under their Christmas tree. Sean brought back a gift bag from his colleague, Georges Lüchinger, who lives in Lichtenstein.

After the gifts were passed out, there was a flurry of opening the little white boxes. Inside were unique, colorful bracelets. And the girls also got a big bag of yummy Christmas cookies. It was quite a surprise and a terrific gesture of friendship from Georges's children, Simon and Julia. Some of the girls have seen Simon and Julia during Sean's Skype sessions with Georges.

Presents From Dad

The girls each received a princess necklace for Christmas.

Christmas Eve Surprise

Aunt Bridget surprised us with a gift of a vacuum and new PJs.

Behind The Scenes: The Christmas Letter

Emily (left) and Olivia headed up the addressing process.
Putting out a Christmas letter can be a lot of work. But as I found out this year, involving the girls turns what had been a three-day, hair-pulling experience into an enjoyable, three-hour project.

The girls were involved in the writing and editing process this year. We started that part of the creative process a week before Thanksgiving. But the process of selecting the photos (and in some cases, securing them) took the longest. Four weeks after getting started, I took the file off to OfficeMax for output. When I picked up the girls from school Tuesday, they were anxious to see the finished product.

From there, we really ramped things up. Once back at the apartment, we created an assembly line and switched on some Christmas music (which quickly turned into Emily's music choices from YouTube). It was both a funny and – at times – educational process. Emily often read people's names and address aloud, to which I would note how we knew them. Lauren and Julia kept running counts on how many stamps we had used or envelopes still needed return addresses.

At one point, Paul Davi's name and address became a source of laughter (I still don't know why). I know Paul from our time with the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team. He's best known as the creator of the team's distinctive red, white and blue jerseys. I'll hopefully run into him next May at the Amgen Tour of California and we'll share a laugh about his name and address being so familiar to my daughters.

Lauren was in charge of the return addresses.

Part of the assembly line took up the entire kitchen table.

Julia was responsible for folding the letters.

Veronica was also proud of her folding job.

Christmas Program

My view of the Christmas program "from the cheap seats."

Julia (spotlighted), doing the "12 Days of Christmas."

Olivia (spotlighted) sang three songs with her class.

Veronica and me in the back row.

Emily's Handiwork

Which of these things is not like the other?
(From our hallway Christmas display.)