Mallory's fascination with scissors

Mallory has developed a keen eye for creating with scissors. 

Several weeks ago she found a stack of assorted paper in the sunroom and started snipping away. She added some embellishments with markers and soon had created a host of paper people. This one is Coryn and is proudly displayed on their bedroom door:

 Mallory asked to send some of her creations in the mail. One of the lucky recipients is Rosalie, our regular sitter from last year who is now away at college.
Lucky for us, Rosalie has a younger sister, Juliette. (Juliette has become our go-to sitter this school year.) When Rosalie was home for Thanksgiving, the girls stopped over to say hello and ended up staying to play barbies until it was dark.

Just two days before their school Christmas Program, Mallory decided to deliver two invitations, one for each babysitter. (I forgot to mention that Rosalie and Juliette's house is two doors down from ours.) Mallory drew a picture for each of them and dictated a message to invite them to come to her new school to hear her and her sisters sing. I added the school's address.

On the evening of the performance, the girls put on their new Christmas dresses from Little Gram. Mallory was fidgety and nervous. She was afraid she would forget some of the words to the songs. Jo suggested Mallory could imagine the audience was only wearing underwear.

I said, if you forget the words, just move your mouth as if you are saying "watermelon" over and over without saying it aloud. It will look like you are singing the words. 
I demonstrated for her.

We arrived early enough to secure seats for us and the grandparents. The three big girls lined up with their classmates and we took our seats.

Before the program began we saw Juliette sneak in and stand off to one side of the standing room only crowd. For the next hour or so the students recited Scripture and sang Christmas songs.

Jo was beaming and singing her heart out. Her smile only faltered once, when it was time for her short solo piece she was focused and recited Mary's Magnificat. Coryn was just out of my line of sight but Gloria stood on my lap and could see her.

When Mallory's group stood up she had a twinkle in her eye. I'm fairly certain Mallory sang only the first song. After that she mouthed "watermelon" over and over and over with a big goofy grin on her face. It cracked me up.

Rosalie arrived a few songs before the program ended. I was surprised and touched that both of these teenagers made time to come and stayed to give our girls hugs when they finished.

Christmas Day we stayed home. We passed the day lounging in our pajamas. It was calm, peaceful, uneventful.

Until the evening. Mallory asked Matt for a pair of scissors so she could "do homework." She cut out a few pictures from a worksheet and then slipped into the bathroom. When she emerged Mallory had cut nearly 10 inches of her hair to create bangs as well as a good chunk off one side.

The next day we went to Little Gram and Pop Pop's house to celebrate Christmas. After the meal I took Mallory to the local Great Clips. The stylist did her best to keep as much of Mallory's hair as possible. When we returned, PopPop took a family photo for us.

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!