My sister had pony, my cousin had pony, everyone had pony!

And now Lilja will have a pony! Christmas came again for her in January and now we are the proud owners of a Welsh Pony named Smithers. Cutest thing you've seen! I know that all involved are very excited to get him! Riki doesn't know she'll have a younger brother, but I'm sure she'll love him like any older sister loves a kid brother. He won't be joining the "herd" until we get back from WI. We'll be heading back there this week to visit Kris' family. Lilja (Kris & I) are looking forward to seeing Amma & Afi Bjarnason, great-grandma Katherine and auntie Brynja! It's been months since we've last seen them. I know I'm dying to freeze my "arse" off in the negative temperatures! Since I'm still in training for my marathon (in March) I'll need to keep up with my regular running routine. The possibility of frozen lungs (is that really possible) or perhaps some frost bite does sound rather appealing.

Speaking of Christmas, it was a joyous and white Christmas here in Seattle. Santa was very generous to all of us this year, obviously we made the "good" list. Lilja had such a grand time opening all her gifts, definitely more into it this year than last year. The items in the boxes were even better than the boxes themselves!

This was her Christmas outfit! The ponytails lasted all of 3 minutes (perhaps less). She loves to have her hair brushed and wants you to put barrettes in it, but she can't overcome the urge to take them out, just to ask you to put them back in. I'm thinking by the time she's 5, I may get her to leave them alone. Here grandma W. has tried to distract her from the ponytails by giving her a cookie.






Opening all her goods! The Good N' Plenty's really were for daddy, but she grabbed onto them first thing, hoping they were hers. Possession is 9/10ths of the law!



She'll be stylin in her new Minnesota Wild hockey jersey thanks to Aunt Brynja! Guess someone else (Aunt KK) will need to send her a Colorado Avalanche one too!


Still not quite awake...but checkin out the new charm for her charm bracelet from Amma & Afi. For Christmas, she got this beautiful snowflake! And yes, that is "The Blue Box" aka Tiffanys! She is a lucky little girl! Very very lucky. I didn't get anything in a blue box until the day I got married...hello (let's just say I was over 30 at that time)!

She was multi-tasking by riding on her new "cart" and opening a pair of mittens at the same time. Next year we will have to video it all, as it was so fun and entertaining to watch how excited she got at each thing she opened. We might need those tapes for later in life...like her teen years when sometimes they forget to be so grateful!!


Amma & Afi also sent this adorable little backpack that had a horse riding in the back of it. Lilja decided to replace the horse and put "dolly" in it and take her for a ride! That kept her busy for ages...going around and around the island in the kitchen!

















The snow lasted longer than usual around here, and we actually had some time to play in it before it magically disappeared!


Since we are all about equal opportunity, we made a snow-woman! Complete with a scarf, a hat, and rock eyes, that Rollie was keeping close tabs on (being the rock eater that he is).









Grandpa fashioned a homemade sled using her rocking horse! She LOVED it...until grandpa hit a snowbank and it fell over! She realizes the snow is wet and cold, and apparently those are not 2 of her favorite things.