Merry Christmas! (Santa through the years)

(The Eanes in me wants to visit again for a full-body picture.)

Provenzano Christmas Eve

We visited the Tennessee Aquarium on our road trip

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy made a beaded Christmas necklace at school and described it to me multiple times before it came home:  jingle bell, 6 green, 6 white, 6 red, jingle bell, 6 green, 6 white, 6 red, giant jingle bell, 6 green, 6 white, 6 red, jingle bell, 6 green, 6 white, 6 red, jingle bell.

We stopped on our drive to Chicago at the Tennessee Aquarium.  There is much for sale there, and I told Dorothy that we had spent our money on the tickets, so we weren't going to buy any of the extras.  Towards the end, she spotted one of those donation buckets where you drop in the coins and it swirls inside a big plastic funnel on its way into the bank.  "Can I do this?" she asked.  "It doesn't take any money!"

Dorothy approached Brian with her arms open wide and a mischievous look on her face.  "I'm here to hug you, Daddy," she said, "but don't tickle me back!"

We were singing the 12 Days of Christmas.  We got to #8, and Dorothy sputtered out, "Eight milks-a-making...makes-a-milking...maids-a-milking!"

Dorothy loves nothing more than being carried to the car "in the middle of the night" to begin a road trip.  At 5 a.m. in a hotel in Bowling Green, Dorothy stirred, and then said, "If I can't go back to sleep, we'll have to stay in this hotel another night."

Our angel in the nativity play

Dorothy showed Santa how her sequined dress changes

Sometimes I find photos on my phone that I didn't take

Daniel, Valerie, Alina, and Andrew celebrated with us last weekend

Gram & Big Daddy came to Christmas

The Sunday Funnies

We watched a kids' movie with a know-it-all character.  At one point the characters are looking for an exit, and the know-it-all gives the origin of the word "exit", something along the lines of:  "Exit, from the Latin exitus act or means of going out, equivalent to exi-, variant stem of exīre to go out".  Dorothy gave a hearty laugh and explained, "He's funny.  That's not real."

We requested that Google play a Christmas song, and oddly, it played a baseball song.  Dorothy said, "This isn't a Christmas song!  It's Bring Me Out to the Ballgame!"

Dorothy is into designing roller coasters lately

Brian volunteered in Dorothy's class this morning

And dressing alike is in the details

Dorothy and Willa like to dress alike