Christmas Part II

As soon as Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Emily and Cousin Daniel arrived, we sat down to Christmas dinner. It was really fun to put all the food together, extend our table to it's very biggest and commune. It was wonderful to see them all and to catch up!

After dinner it was a bit past Ella's bedtime, but we decided to open some presents anyway. Eleanor was prepped from the morning gift session, so she was all jazzed up for more "pesents!"

First she opened yet another Baby! Thanks, Anthony and Bethany. Eleanor loves that this baby drinks from her bottle, goes to sleep and giggles. (More about all that at a later date!)

Ella also scored some super cool finger puppets. She loves to walk around with them on her fingers... but she and the dog get into some pretty rough fights over them, too.
And a super cool handmade xylophone from Uncle Jeffrey!Merry Christmas! (Don't I look completely beat!?)After Eleanor went to bed, the rest of us finished opening gifts.

It was a wonderful day. It was also exhausting - both for those preparing for guests and for those traveling quite a long way to get here. Thanks for coming everyone!

Visitors

Since Seth was unable to get vacation during Christmas this year, some of my family was able to come to us for the holiday. They traveled all morning to get to us, arriving just in time for Christmas dinner.

Other than the typical Christmas celebrating, we had a great time walking, chatting, playing games, knitting and watching football. After being here a few days and freezing in our basement, my dad decided he'd like to fix the ancient natural gas space heater we have in our great room. He, my brother Jeff and Seth spent quite a few hours working on it and getting new parts for it. And, they were successful! So, now our family room has heat. Fantastic!

It was very fun to have Daniel around (7 months) and to watch Eleanor interact with him. She adores babies right now (thus the baby dolls for Christmas) and she often wants to help with things. I was a bit worried that she'd be overbearing, but for the most part things went well. We loved watching Daniel crawl around and pull himself up on things to check them out. He's an observant little fellow!

Here are a few of the fun pics my dad took of the visit. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of our whole group. We're going to have to work on that!

The Cabbage Patch Kid

Ella's Aunt Natasa and Uncle Matt got her a CPK for Christmas... and here's how the opening of it went:

Another present, yay! Rip!
Still intent upon the wrappings...
Ooh, what is it?
Daddy, get it open! "App-el, app-el!"
Will it come out yet?
Maybe it's ready now!? I've gotta hug her!
Daddy, seriously, this is taking way too long!
Checking her out... Mary Ellen is her name. She has eyes, ears, a nose and a mouth!
Squeeze!
I love you, Mary Ellen!
This was after Eleanor had opened some baby accessories from Gobber. Mary Ellen had to be the first to try out her new baby bottles. Yum!
Thanks guys. Ella loves Mary Ellen, especially because all her clothes come off, she has a diaper and her "boots" come off!

Christmas Part I

Christmas morning we woke up late (7:30ish), got Ella dressed - so she'd be cute in Christmas pics, of course - and had a waffle breakfast. Then we went at the huge pile of presents under our tree. Eleanor started us off with some great little packets of coal. Thanks Matt and Natasa!
Ella enjoyed snooping under the tree, picking out packages to be opened. For the most part, we let her decide what should be opened when.
Hmmm. What's this? More coal? Fantastic!
Eleanor loved opening "pesents." She ripped the paper like a pro this year. She was also very excited about the toys that appeared from inside. She always demanded things to be "app-el!" as soon as she saw them (opened). Here she is with a great little tractor book from Kayli. Very exciting!
Some serious present opening.
Yay! It's a horse - or "orsey."
I love this picture because it shows how she went at things with both hands. :)
Oh, bliss!, a kitty purse from "Gobber" (Grandma). Ella loves to put this over her shoulder and announce that she's leaving for a "trip." "Bye-bye. Car. Keys. 'Later."
The purse was filled with all kinds of goodies... including a hair brush, thus the missing piggy-tail all of a sudden, and chapstick. Ella is still having a hard time understanding that chapstick goes on your lips and not your chin...
Mommy and Daddy got Eleanor a play tent and crawl tube. So much fun!
And here I thought we just needed to document the fact that Mommy was there, too. :)
It was a very happy Christmas. This morning was only a small piece of the whole day... check out our next posts for what else happened on Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

There is something magical about Christmas Eve to me. I just love candlelight services and being home and purposefully not doing anything "productive." It is wonderful to reach the point of the Christmas season where we can be still. The shopping is done, the gifts wrapped, the tree decorated, the cookies baked and now we can relax and enjoy all the fruits of our work and planning.

"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6

We are looking forward to a simple celebration with our little threesome tonight and tomorrow morning. The afternoon of Christmas Day (tomorrow!) my parents and one brother's family will be joining us here in Sheridan! We are looking forward to a wonderful time spent with them in the spirit of love, peace and most certainly joy!

Merry Christmas!

"Ella!"

My cousin Lindsey just posted about her 2 year old wanting to do everything her "Self!" Well, Eleanor also wants to do most things herself these days, but she doesn't know that word yet. Instead, she yells, "Ella!" I let her do what she can... and try not to get too annoyed when we need to be leaving quickly and she's attempting to shove her feet (the wrong feet) into boots. These days she's still pretty calm about us helping her once she's tried doing each task herself. Like this coat situation, she did let me turn it around so we could get it zipped... although I think that was because she really adores zippers...

Just Like Daddy

Ella watches EVERYTHING these days. Thus, we have to watch her VERY CAREFULLY. She tries to do anything and everything she sees an adult do. In the above picture, she's screwing her newly opened Drummer Boy Stable and Nativity Set from "Gobber." Seth had just used the screwdriver to put batteries in the stable and Eleanor decided she needed to do it, too.

Thank you, Gobber and Gomper for the Little People sets. We love them! Eleanor has played with them a lot already.

Squeeze!

A few days ago, when she was feeling much better, Eleanor learned the word "squeeze!" She tried it out over and over again with very soggy toast. (Gross!) Now she squeezes all kinds of things while declaring her intent...

"Squeeze!" your neck (as in hug).

"Squeeze!" the toothpaste.

"Squeeze!" her juice box (oh, what a mess).

Too Often

Here's our typical pose these days. Ick.

Busy Beavers

The hallway leading to our basement has bothered me for a long time, mostly because of it's bland whiteness - mixed with a lot of dirt and damage. So, Seth and I finally did something about it!

Here's what it looked like before:And here's what it looks like now:
We're hoping the improvement helps us enjoy going downstairs more often... the basement tends to be ignored and it's half of our house!