Girls Opening Dollhouse

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all!

We were blessed to have my parents visit over Christmas this year; Mom and Dad arrived on Friday morning and we spent Friday hanging out with the girls.  Friday afternoon I also drove them around Arvada to see where we lived and where Adam worked and the girls went to daycare.

Yesterday we went for lunch and then drove up to Lookout Mountain.  What a twisty curvy road!  Poor dad had to drive Adam in his truck as Adam is recovering from him gall bladder surgery (which was on Wednesday).  When we neared the top, Mom and Dad had their picture taken.

We then went to Buffalo Bill’s gravesite and took a load of pictures of the mountains and area.

Yesterday afternoon we attended Christmas Eve service at our church, Foothills Community, and then came home for a dinner of chili and opening presents (pictures to come… they are on the camera right now!).  The girls played with their new gifts for a few hours and we played Pass the Pigs until bedtime.

This morning the girls opened their new dollhouse and we mainly hung out at the house watching TV today, reading the paper, and watching the girls play.  (And of course tonight we are watching the Packers play!)

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and had a chance to celebrate the birth of our Savior with your family and friends!

Love,
The Draegers

I'm a Zombie!

So... a few weeks ago I was playing with Raven or talking with Raven or something, and she started saying the word "Zombie, zombie, zombie!" over and over again. No idea why... it was not related to the conversation.

Fast forward to this weekend and both girls got crazy giggles out of Raven, unprompted, chasing Julia and saying, "I'm a zombie! I'm a zombie!" One word: HILARIOUS.

I mentioned it to Adam last night and he's like, "What, no WAY!" and decided he needed to capture it on video.

The most funny thing about this? We never taught her this. Raven doesn't watch zombie movies. So while we have a heart for zombies in this house, unless she remembers the Zombie Crawl in October or learned this at school... well, again, HILARIOUS.

Balloons are much easier to catch than balls… and safer in the house too.

Somersaults

Christmas Shopping

I wanted to post the three main places (which have turned into my favorite places to shop) from which I bought Christmas gifts this year… if you are receiving a gift from me, most likely all or part of your gift is coming from one of these three places…

1.  Etsy.  I cannot express to you HOW MUCH I love Etsy.  Sure, occasionally you get a dud, but overall, I have had such a great experience shopping through Etsy.  I love the creativity that pours from that website and the fact that I can find virtually anything that I want, or I can find someone who is willing to make it.

2.  Amazon.  When it comes to the very simple book, CD, or movie or to oddball things, Amazon is the place to get it… and if you’re fortunate, if you spend $25 or more, your shipping is free!  I love it!  The other great thing about Amazon… even if decide I want to purchase it elsewhere, Amazon a.) provides me with reviews of that which I’m looking to purchase and b.) often gives me enough details to be able to find it elsewhere on the web.

3.  Target.  I provided the link to the Target website, but really, Target is where I go when I want to purchase something “in person” or when I want to buy clothing for children.  It has become my standby for purchasing new children’s clothing.  A lot of people have urged me to look to Craigslist for clothing, and while I appreciate that I can buy clothing through Craigslist, especially when it comes to gifts, I love that with Target it is new, has a gift receipt, and that there are Targets everywhere.

As mentioned, I’ve shopped elsewhere… the girls are going to spazz when they see the Loving Family Dollhouse and Accessories that I found on Craigslist last weekend, and there are always shops local to me that I peek at for interesting and different gifts.  But generally, this year the above three have afforded me with creative, interesting, nice-priced, and on-time gifts… that is so important, especially with how insane the holiday season is by itself, let alone when you’re working 50+ hours a week and still trying to acclimate to your surroundings.

Happy Shopping!

Erin