Dec 3rd: Ella showing Eve some of her favorite ornaments. She is such a doting big sis.
Dec 5th: The kids wrote letters to Santa. I loved Ella's. It said, "Dear Santa, I want for Christmas a barbie bride. Love, Ella. I also want a bracelet kit. I love you. You know my name, right? It is Ella Marshall."
Dec 6th: We did a fair amount of this in December... playing/laying around the house.
We also did a little bit of shopping. I was in charge of decorating for our church Christmas party. I cut these wrapping paper rolls into squares to use as part of the centerpeices for each table. I LOVE the patterns. Below are the "matching" stockings that I bought for all of us for our fireplace. It is so nice to finally have a place to hang stockings!
I took these pictures after the kids were in bed, and after a particularly rough day. It was so nice to relax with the Christmas decor, and eat a ridiculously amazing cupcake made by a friend who sells these to raise money for her mom who has MS. They are hot chocolate cupcakes and are out of this world! I remember the Instagram caption for this particular photo was, "The kids were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of these hot cocoa cupcakes became a reality all up in my face." True.
Dec 8th: Isaac played with the nativity sets, and also changed the story-line a bit.
That night Ella was in charge of FHE. Her lesson was about Jesus' birth, and she did a really beautiful job of telling the story. She really does listen and hold on to the things that we try to teach.
After the lesson, we normally have some sort of dessert. Well, that Sunday we didn't have anything, but we did have cream - so we made homemade ice cream.
Dec 10th: Ella's birthday. I already wrote all about that, but here is another picture: at her restaurant of choice (always), Red Robin.
Dec 11th: Isaac, Eve, and I took treats to Ella's class to celebrate her bday. We had meant to take them on her actual birthday, but school had been cancelled that day.
Dec 13th: I made my yearly fresh wreath for our front door. I LOVE fresh wreaths. And it actually never really died. Craig took it down in February, because having a Christmas wreath on the front door then was getting a little out of control apparently.
Dec 14th: We hosted a Minute to Win It style Christmas party. We had some of our friends over for food and games, and it was just a great time. Lots of fun and laughs. On the left was a kind of suck and blow game, and on the right is Craig doing the Junk in the Trunk game - booty shaking for all to see. It looks like he got a thumbs up!
... they decided they wanted to go ahead and eat them.
... and then Isaac acted like the cardboard-tasting ginger house was delicious, because he knew I was a little annoyed about that they were already taking them apart (I wanted them to at least admire them for a few days before destroying them!)
Buuuut, it actually wasn't delicious, and for real tasted like cardboard. So they were quickly over it, leaving behind a huge mess, with concrete-like icing spread all over the table, chairs, and floor. Was it totally worth it for the memories? I can't say yes. Next year they will decorate ONE together just for the tradition of it all.
Dec 20th: Ella made these adorable watercolor Christmas cards for her teacher and bus driver. I hope they keep them forever.
Dec 21st: I spent the morning making approximately one million pans of cinnamon rolls (or 15) to give away as gifts to friends/neighbors/family for Christmas. Best recipe ever. But I tried something new and par-baked them so that those who received them could bake the rest of the way for a fresh roll... well, they all collapsed after being par-baked and stayed that way. More than a tear was shed. That was a LOT of work! Next time, I will not be fancy, and I will cook them all the way to guarantee perfection.
Thankfully, we had a really beautiful rest of the day. First, we went to visit the Legendary Santa, like we do every year. The kids were so excited... well, Ella and Isaac were.
Ella speaking with the snow queen.
It's okay. All of our kids looked like that around that age when sitting on Santa's lap. See how fast she got over it? Also, Ella and Isaac had a nice chat with Santa. Ella told him that she wanted a bride and boy barbie, and Isaac said he wanted knights. It was a really special trip to see Santa. He told us how awesome our kids were, and showed a real love for them and for what he does. It was pretty great.
We went from visiting Santa at the childrens museum, to experience the beauty and great spirit of the live nativity at the Metro Richmond Zoo. They really do a great job telling the story, acting it out, and involving some of their animals. There was a really special spirit there - I definitely felt its goodness!
On Christmas Eve, Dec 24th, we went to Gma and Gpa Marshalls house to celebrate. We did the music chime thing, had the yearly delicious Chinese take-out, reenacted the nativity story, and opened a few gifts with family. We love going to their house every year for this, and had so much fun.
That night we didn't get home until pretty late, so we put all of the kids straight to bed. We then realized that I had forgotten to leave out milk and cookies for Santa, so we woke Ella up to do her duty.
Dec 25th: Christmas Day. I'll have another post just for this.
December 30th: Craig and I celebrated 8 years of marriage on this day. I love that man. Ella woke up really early (about 6) that morning because she was so excited to make us a special card and breakfast. I didn't realize that that was the reason she woke up so early, so I told her that she needed to go to bed because it was "literally the middle of the night!"... she was a bit upset about that, but then snuck downstairs about 45 minutes later to get started on her sweet surprise: ginger snaps with whipped cream and berries on top, and a plate of cherry tomatoes. I especially loved her card. It said, "I love the love of your guys." What a sweet girl!
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