December 29, 2014

Christmas 2014

I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone.  We even have already taken down all of our decorations.  Sniff. Sniff.  At least we are left with a lot of great memories celebrating with family and friends.  And this was our favorite Christmas to date.  I anticipate we will say that every year as the kids grow.

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my in-laws.  Christmas Eve morning we headed over there in our PJ's for breakfast and gifts.  We had been prepping Ella for days on what to expect this Christmas so she woke up shouting "Christmas Time!"  Which she still shouts every morning. Wishful thinking Ella.


We came home for a bit to attempt our naps and then went back to Grandma and Grandpa Keith's for a big Christmas Eve celebration with great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc. Below is a pic of the original Fyvie, Great Grandpa and the newest Fyvie, Griffin.  Also known as Fyvie 1 and Fyvie 4.


Even though it was super late when we got home we took a few minutes to set out cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.  Unfortunately all I had was a bag of little carrot slices - sorry reindeer.  Ella thought they would still love them.


Brandon and I were so excited for Christmas morning, we hardly slept.  Ella was so exhausted from Christmas Eve she slept until 9:30 and Griffin was up from 4-6 screaming so he eventually fell back asleep and I woke him up when Ella got up.  I had to, I was so excited for Christmas morning.  It was just the four of us and so perfect.  I loved watching Ella's reaction when she saw the tree with all her presents.  She understood that Santa had visited and kept telling us that he brought her presents.  Eventually she learned that he also brought presents for everyone else but that took a minute since she also thought it was her birthday.  That took some explaining.  It didn't help that we kept telling her it was Jesus's birthday.  Life can be so confusing when you're two.  And Griffin, well he just wanted the wrapping paper.



Midday we headed to my parents to celebrate with them.  I love that both our families are in town.  Less travel and more family time.  Ella picked up right where she left off - unwrapping gifts.


Ella thought the gifts made a great seat when she had to quickly jump on her computer to "work". 



We spent the rest of the day at my parents eating, relaxing, playing games and enjoying our new gifts - in our PJ's of course.  

It is always so sad when Christmas comes to an end but I am always left reminded of how blessed we are to have ALL our family nearby, healthy and together to celebrate the birth of our Lord.
Hope you all had a joyous Christmas too!

Christmas Cookies with a Two Year Old

-- I never posted this before Christmas but it was too adorable not to share - even late. --

This year I was so excited to make Christmas cookies with Ella.  She loved decorating (eating) the gingerbread houses and has been asking to "decorate" incessantly ever since so I had a feeling she would love the Christmas cookies.  We were supposed to make them for her Dad's work but the actual baking of the cookies took WAY longer than I thought with a two year old and we didn't get a chance to decorate them in time - sorry work people!

We spent a lot of time rolling out and cutting our cookies.  I quickly learned that it was best to give Ella some of her own dough to roll out and cut/play with.



A rare moment where she was too distracted to pull out her pony tail.  She looks so cute and grown up.  Then I came back into the room from putting our first batch in the oven and found this....



Hot mess Ella smearing buttery dough into her hair.  It was all downhill from here.

So I rushed to finish cutting out and baking the cookies before things got any worse and we gave up for awhile.  Once things calmed down (4 days later) we invited my mom and sister to help us decorate - at their house.

  

It started out okay.  And then she learned this.



Which turned into this.


And culminated in this.



Oh yes, smearing icing on her lips, kissing the sprinkles and then eating it all.
Only Ella.

Somehow we managed to walk away with a few decorated cookies.  Can you tell which ones were mine and Ella's and which ones were my mom's and sister's?



(Sorry about all the phone pics - forgot to bring my camera to my parent's house.)