Beach

Katie couldn't get enough of the beach! That was fine with us. We had plans each afternoon, but at least we got to spend the morning on the beach.

Aunt Rachel and her girls

Katie and Robin had a great time playing on the beach. Here they are with Aunt Rachel. This trip, Katie was taller - as I think she was at Thanksgiving too, but not October.

They were building in the sand and decided they needed water, so the girls walked back and forth to the water carrying the bucket together singing the song from the Wonder Pets, "what's gonna work? Teamwork!"

Cousins Dinner

We decided to have a cousins dinner at a crab shack. We showed Katie the pictures the next day and she said, "I want lobster too."

Hot Sauce

Pete decided that he should call "Uncle Big Pete," as he's been calling him his entire life, "Hot Sauce" because there's a brand of hot sauce called "Texas Pete."

I love this picture of the Peters. I call it "preparing for retirement." Yes, my husband and my 13-year-old nephew were playing shuffleboard together at Pete's grandparents' condo in Florida. Well at least we missed the early bird specials, but something about the place seemed like a scene out of Seinfeld. Boca del Vista anyone?

Here are Katie and Robin in the pool with Mitch. While I can't say Katie's swimming is terrific, at least she's comfortable. And as I've mentioned before, I know I couldn't swim when I was 4, especially in deep water!

Florida!

We went to Florida for Grandma Sophie's 100th birthday. Sophie had been planning a party for months and then cancelled it right before because she wasn't feeling well. We decided to go anyway because we had the plane tickets and my parents, sisters and cousins were going to be there. The weather was beautiful and we stayed on the beach. Katie had the best time digging every morning in the sand.

Here is Katie with cousin Illyse, a loyal Urban Meadow fan.

Snow in Dallas!!!!

We had a white Christmas!!!! Would you believe that this is Dallas? Peter took this picture in the morning while I slept. It's adorable. Katie and Meadow loved the snow!

Katie made snow angels, which made her really happy, though she complained that they didn't come out well.

Look - we had 2 inches!
Snow around the pool
And a few hours later, it was gone. Literally, no more than about 5 hours.

Chanukah at Temple

I worked on the Temple Chanukah celebration, which was actually a lot more work than I expected. We had a dinner and crafts for the kids and then a family friendly service. Everyone brought their own Chanukiah and lit it in the sanctuary. With the lights dimmed it looked beautiful. Here's Katie with our Chanukiah after services. She was about to blow the candles out.

"Visiting People"

A few months ago, we started "visiting people" with our friends Saskia and Anneke. It's a mitzvah project that we started because we think it's important for Katie to remember that there are people outside of her world and are in different phases of their lives. It's a little bit of an extension of our life in NYC, where we would visit Oma every Friday. The difference is that we visit Jewish residents in various places and we don't develop the same relationship because we go different places.

At times it's a little awkward for the girls and often they'd rather play with each other than make conversation with older people they don't know. But Karen and I help them along and we encourage the girls to bring some artwork that they did in school that week to make conversation, sort of like "show and tell." I'm very proud of Katie for looking forward to and enjoying these visits.

Class Chanukah party

Katie's class had a Chanukah party. Parents worked hard to bring in all this food for lunch and my friend Jane made latkes for everyone. And the kids took about two bites and threw their full plates away. I think there was an element of peer pressure and once one kid's plate was in the trash, everyone else followed. Jane's latkes were good though.

Anna visits!

Our friend Anna and her parents visited from NY. We met them at Anna's grandparents' house and later walked to the newly renovated park right nearby. The girls had a great time. And Anna's grandparents brought in Bubbba's for lunch, which made Peter happy.

Somehow I don't have a picture of this, but Katie and I went to the preschool Chanukah party later that afternoon. I still couldn't touch latkes after my latke-making marathon, but Katie had a blast with everything else. There was a DJ at the party and Katie danced and danced and danced until the end. Her favorite part was dancing with Shelly, the pre-school director.

Latkes

Chanukah is not complete without latkes. The thing about latkes is that they smell up your house ridiculously - and I do mean ridiculously that if you make them correctly, your house will smell for days. I had gone to a lecture by a cookbook author (Tina Wasserman) who belongs to Temple Emanu-El and just came out with a wonderful Jewish cookbook. She suggested using yukon gold potatoes (they're less starchy than russet) and rinsing them after you grate them because it's the starch that turns the latkes brown. My curiosity was piqued and I had to try this.

Our plans were canceled for the afternoon of the first night of Chanukah so Katie and I were looking for something to do. While we planned to have dinner with Ann & Alan the next night, I wasn't up for making a whole meal for the 5 of us (b/c I think that brisket traditionally goes with latkes and I wasn't make that!) so I made some chicken for us and latkes. I adjusted Tina's recipe a bit because the first batch of latkes didn't stay together. And next time I probably won't use a non-stick pan (Ann's suggestion). But boy did I make latkes... and latkes... and more latkes... I think I was standing in front of the stove for 3 hours. Katie was, literally, in bed by the time I was done. I'd say there's a bit of a learning curve and it took me a while to figure out that smaller ones worked better. But the batter was a beautiful gold and they were delicious. Katie put on her ballet shoes and tutu and danced to Chanukah music in the kitchen while I cooked. A wonderful way to spend the first night of Chanukah.

Not to disappoint, our house smelled for days...

Happy Chanukah!

Yes, I'm behind in blogging, but I couldn't let Chanukah pass by without a mention. The pre-K class didn't make a chanukiah this year, the rationale being that they made one in the 3s class. Katie's chanukiah from last year did not survive well so Katie and I set about trying to figure out how to create one. She's enjoyed going to the "mosaic store" so I bought glass tiles from there to make this chanukiah. I imagined stacking the tiles vertically, but she wanted to make stacks of tiles horizontally. It worked well and fit perfectly - from 1 tile for the first night to 8 tiles for the last night. Katie then looked at the finished product and said, "Mommy, I made a triangle." And she had.

drawing

Katie loves to draw. Her artwork has become more sophisticated and here's a picture of a birthday card she made her friend Hanna. I really wanted to frame this card, but she insisted on giving it to Hanna. I think that the smiling flowers and sun are a nice touch. Actually, I think these two friends even have belly buttons.

First Snow in Dallas!

Wow - have I really finished blogging Thanksgiving? Now I'm a little less behind.

Here's Katie at our first snowfall in Dallas on December 2nd. It snowed for about 15 minutes and disappeared quickly after. It was early in the morning so we were able to get outside with a camera quickly enough to get a picture of Katie trying to catch snowflakes with her tongue.

More dancing for Oma

You can never dance too much for Oma. Katie enjoyed doing the Turkey Tango for her. It was very cute and a way to share Thanksgiving with her.

By the way - because it's been so cold lately, Katie's been talking a lot about "lines on your hands." She is sure to say that when you get older, you get lots of lines on your hands like old people do, like Oma does. I think lines sound much cuter than wrinkles.

Accessorizing Thanksgiving

Katie and Robin decided to "accessorize" Daddy/Uncle Big Pete. very cute that they covered him with their drawings.


Robin slept over and the next day they used their artwork to decorate the Thanksgiving table. Katie made the tissue paper turkey in school so it made the trip to NJ.


And then the girls decided to wear coordinated dresses for Thanksgiving dinner - the dresses that Dima bought them in Dallas when Robin was the model for both of them.