My Grinchy birthday

 

For my birthday, I had the bright idea to take the family to a Grinch-themed ice sculpture exhibit. 

Things started off OK until we all had to put on ill-fitting blue jackets and then spend the next hour in a 9-degree walk-in freezer. Actually, I think everyone had a good time except the 2-year-old and her caretaker.
 

 Lily trying to find out how the Grinch achieves such fabulous lashes.

 

All the Whos down in Whoville. Lily informed me that their toys "aren't real. They don't really exist."

 The Grinch tying one on. 

This is about as happy as Amalia got yesterday. 

 

Lily drooling over the roast beast. 

 

After the ice exhibit, we weren't sufficiently hypothermic, so we decided to go ice skating. Actually, Lily's been pining after skating for several weeks (I think she watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special where they're all whizzing about on the pond), so I figured it was as good a time as any to let her try it out.

The above picture is about what we looked like the entire time. At one point in our sloth-like progress around the rink, Lily said, "I wish you and Daddy knew how to ice skate."  Too bad her parents both grew up in sunny California.

 

A Christmas tree made entirely out of marshmallow peeps! I guess they're trying to branch out into other holidays.

This is what Amalia looked like most of the day. Well, except for the time she was making that face inside a big blue parka.

And yet, as we were leaving, she felt the need to stop and share a tender moment with the Grinch on the kiosk. A woman of many moods, that one.