Mary

Starting in the beginning of December, and now lasting almost 2 months, Lauren has taken on a new identity, especially at night. Fascinated by the nativity scenes during the Christmas season, Lauren truly believes she is Mary. When passing by manger scenes, she would say, "Look! It's me, Mary!" In fact one day she told Kate, "Today you can call me Sissy, but tomorrow you need to call me Mary."

She has now named her doll Baby Jesus and has selected a blanket specifically for her "child." Also, in our household, Baby Jesus is female.

This "new identity" took on a whole new twist a few weeks ago. When going to bed, she asked us to drape a blanket over her head so she could be Mary. This is now how she falls asleep, cradling Baby Jesus in her arms. How precious is that!

100 Days!

Kate officially completed 100 days of Kindergarten this past Friday! In celebration of their accomplishment, each child had to decorate a "100" with 100 objects...Kate chose gold star stickers.

During school, they wore their "100" crowns, fruit loop necklaces (100 fruit loops total), and their "100 Day" badges. Since her special day, we have worn the items several more times. Only 78 1/2 more days to go...then it's 1st grade!

Purplicious!

Kate inherited a purple dress coat in December from friends of ours and Lauren received one from Grandpa and Grandma for Christmas. As a result, the girls claim they are twins when they both wear their purple coats. Quite "purplicious" and cute, if I do say so myself!

The White House

During our visit to VA in December, we did manage to take the girls into Washington, D.C. before the winter storm hit. Kate was interested in seeing the White House, a.k.a. where Barack Obama lives, and asked several times if we could go in to see him. Although that was not possible, we were able to take a photo in front of the gates.

We then ventured on to view the National Christmas Tree on the Eclipse. The girls were very cold and wanted nothing more than to return to the car...until...they spotted the 12 trains circling the large tree. Excitement outweighed the cold and we enjoyed the remainder of the time watching the locomotives and admiring the 50 smaller trees, each representing a state.

We finished our brief tour at a very large bonfire, which served in warming up all of us before walking back to the car. Of course, the girls adrenaline had kicked in with the news we were heading to Chick Fil-A for lunch!