Aliens, Christmas, and a surprise resolution

About two weeks before Christmas, and after much nagging from Amelia, Evan finally managed to put up Christmas lights on the house and around the huge tree in the front. Hmmm. Maybe I should take a picture before he takes them down. Although, they'll probably be up until Valentine's Day, so I have time.

Anyway, while Evan was putting up the twinkling orbs in the twilight, Amelia and Dylan helped by wearing disco-ball headbands and calling themselves " cute aliens."

Actually, I dubbed them "cute aliens."

They were pretty cute.

They were eating blue Go-gurts prior to this adventure and Dylan decided to save some for an after-light-hanging snack.

The first part of the holiday break, they were invited to a party at Pump It Up and, after bouncing, sliding, and sweating to his heart's content, Dylan insisted on sleeping with his treat bag.

And, they hung out in their pajamas for much of each day.

Amelia is really interested in taking pictures with the camera and she took the following during the holiday. Her subjects tend to be toys and the television, but this photo actually turned out pretty well.

Dylan felt left out, so I helped him take this one.

Christmas morning was the only time I managed to pull out the camera during all of the festivities, though we celebrated Christmas Eve with Evan's family and Christmas Day with mine.

The strange blue and white haired dog with high-heeled shoes is a fashion pup. Amelia insisted that Santa would bring her one even though her parents thought it was a little strange and not very attractive.

And good old Santa came through.

We bought this Diego tricycle for Dylan hoping that his legs could reach the pedals.

No such luck.

So, he pushes himself around using his feet on the floor. Oh well. He'll grow. For now, he and Amelia fight over who gets to ride it inside. We came to a truce by attaching a plastic wagon with a jump rope to the back of the tricycle so that they can take turns pulling each other around.

And our Christmas, anniversary, and next birthday gift to each other was a weekend trip to Sedona. We stayed at a bed and breakfast called the Sunset Chateau. It was much colder than we anticipated, so we got to wear scarves and gloves during the day, not just at night. I was glad that I dug out the few true winter clothes that I own. This consists of about three really warm sweaters: one wool, one angora, and one cashmere. Each is probably about 10 years old. Was it really even cold enough in the valley to wear them 10 years ago? Probably not. This is likely the reason that they look new.

We went for a hike during one of the afternoons and cracked up trying to take a picture of ourselves.

There was way too much sun in this one.

And our faces are nearly too close to the lens here. We were looking at the viewer rather than the lens anyway.

At least we made an attempt to record the trip in photograph. Usually, either we neglect to pull out the camera if we bring it or we forget to pack it entirely.

This then, is progress.

(There's one unintended resolution!)

Happy New Year!