We hope the spirit of Christ's birth--sacrificial love--will permeate 2009! :)

My Big, Big Dollhouse!

There is a fun toy store on the opposite end of the city, and it has some great toys that Makana loves to interact with. One of them is a dollhouse. After seeing how much Makana enjoyed playing with all the dolls and accessories in the house, I asked Dave to put his first college degree to work by designing and building his daughter a dollhouse. He realized Makana loved to play with the one at the store but couldn't imagine her putting it to use at home to make it worth his while to design. His alternative: purchase a cheaper one at the store (See the top story, in the middle--the plastic dollhouse?). After all, it came with dolls and furnishings. Makana played with it so much that it convinced Dave that he would make his girl happy by building her a dollhouse out of scraps of wood.

Makana is thrilled with her "Big, big dollhouse!" She tells everyone about it. It is huge. After receiving that pink and purple SUV for Christmas, Dave made an addition: a two-car garage w/a FROG (family room on garage). :)

Slowly but surely, her house is taking shape. Her cousins AJ and Dominic gave her furnishings and rabbits for Christmas, too, which are from the same collection as those from her favorite toy store!

The fun part? Dave is really getting into playing dollhouse now! :)

Fishing

Makana was fascinated by this game at the toy store, so we got it for her. She loves it and challenges others to compete against her. :) Perhaps it is Makana's Marshallese blood that makes fishing second nature to her. She already has Daddy cheating to keep up! :)

Little Helper?

Sure, that stocking is almost as big as Makana, but she insisted on passing them out to their respective owners. :) Big helper. :)

One thing to note: Do NOT depend on Makana to keep a secret about presents. Thankfully, she was only awake for the part of the shopping that I found those chocolate covered espresso beans for Dave. As soon as we got home, she said, "Daddy, we found a present for you!"

I whispered in her ear, "It's a secret! Don't tell him what it is."

Naturally Dave prompted her with questions. It didn't take much for her to run over to him, shouting, "We got you chocolates, and you will like it!"