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We are in high craft season. That is what we like to call the time between Halloween and Valentine's Day at my mom's. Ellie loves it. Every Sunday one of her first comments is usually around a craft. Are we doing one? What is it? If we are not, why not and when? I've said this before - but it is such a great thing my mom does for us. We all have fun, everyone participates, we laugh a ton and just enjoy being together.
In December we made sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, and of course our traditional gingerbread (graham-cracker) houses.
My mom is a busy lady. She runs around with stuff all day long that needs to get done. Craft day is no exception. She usually gets everything prepared and set out for all of us and then she continues doing things around the house and frequently checks back in for the craft. We were cracking up for one picture because she came back to help make the cookies - but to make it look like an uninterrupted "action" shot she grabbed the knife in her fist. The clean knife none the less. Uncle Cracker (yes, he is white, but I was referring to the fact that he cracks jokes) made a joke about it and I almost couldn't stop laughing to take the picture. I'm glad she can just laugh along. We love her and her busy ways. The picture of her and Ellie is actually a real action shot. It is Ellie dumping all of the red crystals on one cookie and her trying to keep in on the counter.
On gingerbread house day - my mom once again got everything out but then said we also had to get her hair colored. (So that is why the picture with the towel.) I didn't realize this post would be so much about my mom - but as craft day is her day - I need to tell another story. But first a little about my mom, I LOVE my mom. She is so fantastic. Everyone that knows her loves her. She is generous and kind and giving and makes everyone around her feel welcome and good about themselves. She is generous with compliments and does not need anything in return. She is a true Christ-like example of service and love. She is strong. She is a true mother - she never stops trying to make her kids happy. She still teaches and prods and helps along the way. For this reason, Jed (uncle cracker) gave her the nick name of MadDog, with which she has become enamored.
She is also tidy and clean. Jed and I were getting food coloring out and I spilled some on the counter. She was out of the room busily getting something else and it was like we were kids again. Jed looked and me and I looked at him and we were like - oh no! So I hurried and got some 409 and we both started working on the freshly red counter. Just in time we got it off - but we both had red stains on our hands. We just started laughing and Uncle Cracker in good form said, "We almost got caught red handed." I honestly have so much fun on craft day.
Ellie loaded the top of her gingerbread house with skittles and ate them all December long. We told my mom her house looked like it had a landing strip for reindeer so Ellie also told my mom all December long that she needed to add some reindeer. It was on gingerbread house Sunday (after eating much candy) Ellie bit down on something hard and realized her second tooth was loose!
I think Ellie likes the crafts - but I really think Ellie enjoys that we are all together. She loves when we are doing something together that she also enjoys. She loves when we all play along. Which made me think of two times just like that outside of craft day.
We had my mom and Jed over for the U of U bowl game. We made treats and had dinner. The entire game Ellie was trying to get my mom and Jed to do something other than watch the game. She loved that everyone was here, but wanted everyone to play games or do something she enjoyed. When the game was over, my cute family played along and we all got on a chair that Ellie had set out and climbed aboard the "train." Ellie was the conductor and lead us in song and along the track. It's so fun to be a kid sometimes.
I can't remember which day it was in December but we were at my mom's and Ellie wanted all of us to play 'Button-Button Who's Got the Button.' She gets better and better at being discreet. I don't know what it was about this day, maybe everyone was just more relaxed and into playing - but it was the most fun game of Button-Button we have ever played. We, once again couldn't stop laughing and just enjoyed being together.
I love this about craft day and I'm glad Ellie does too. I'm glad Ellie creates moments for us outside of craft day and I'm glad my family is great enough to play along.
We have the tradition of putting up our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it takes most of the day. This year we were out of town that day, so we did it the first chance we got after we got home. But since we didn't have a full Saturday it took us a couple of days to get it all done.
I love traditions, and below is ours. First, the Christmas music MUST come on!
Kevin's role is to perfectly place the lights. He knows this is my favorite part so he gets a little stressed but honestly he never fails me. This year he really outdid himself.
While Kevin is stressing over lights - Ellie and I get out the rest of the house decorations and joyfully place them around the house. I can never quite remember where everything goes so Ellie recommended we make a list for each holiday decoration and where it goes so from year to year I won't forget. (She actually mentioned this a few weeks ago in anticipation of decorating and it cracked me up. She is so much like me.)
She has also taken on the tradition of putting on the tree skirt as a dress, a skirt, a queen's cloak, etc. This year she had us call her Queen Ellie the entire night.
Ellie is always in charge of the nativity (which she changes the placement throughout December) and the chocolate tray. Of course you can eat as you place.
This year after the lights were on she loved the tree so much she gave it an air-hug.
After the lights are on and the house is done, together we all decorate the tree.
I hope she is developing my love for the tree and the traditions of the day we bring it home.
This is our 2009 Christmas tree.
The rest of this post isn't so much about Ellie, but my love for the tree. I tell you because I hope it is something I can pass on to her.
I love the Christmas tree. I love going to pick it out and finding just the right one. I love watching as they tie a massive tree to the top of the car. (Since I bought a Mini-Cooper this year, I was thankful for Kevin's car.) I love the time with my family. I love being together and enjoying the season. I love the fresh scent of it in my house. I love the lights. Sometimes at night I'll sit on the couch alone in the dark and just stare at the lights. I squint (or before lasik - I simply took off my glasses) to spread the lights around. I love the decorations - I've had homemade ornaments which are so meaningful, and I have also spent hours in stores selecting just the right ones.
Ellie asked me the other day why I always leave the lights on, even in the day. I told her because I love looking at them. It's so magical to me to have a real tree, in my house, so beautiful (just the tree alone) and then we garnish it with even more beauty and I have just one month to enjoy it.
I've never looked at the history of this tree I love so much. My history of the tree tells it's own story. But this year I decided to do some searching. I had heard it was a pagan tradition, and then I had heard it was not. (Both of these links "Wikipedia" and "ChristmasArchives" give great histories.) The oldest historical reference I found was back to the 7th century and the Fir tree was used in symbolism to describe the Holy Trinity. In the 16th century the tree with lights was used to show how stars twinkled in the night (using candles). In the mid 16th century the colors red and white were introduced for knowledge and innocence. Of course the history develops and changes over the years, but I think the roots are quite appropriate.
You can take away many thoughts from history, but what I am taking is how it relates to me.
I love that the tree can be tied to Christ, Knowledge, Innocence and Light. To me - those are the reasons for Christmas. Those are the reasons for my traditions. Those are the reasons for my majestic tree.
November was FULL. Full of dance practices in preparation for the big performance. Full of fun with family and friends. Full of travel as we went from Utah to Ohio to Chicago back to Utah. Full of good food so of course, our bellies were FULL.
Ellie's dance group prepared all month for their November 30th shows of The Nutcracker. Dance is usually four times a month, but this month Ellie was at the studio NINE times in preparation. So many of our nights were filled with dance. They had a morning performance where other school children were invited to attend and then an evening performance for parents and families. Ellie's usual fans were there (Grandma, Garred, Kevin and me.) Ellie was a cute little candy cane and those practices must have paid off because she did her part so well! I just love watching her dance.
We were dance free on the weekends so we tried to make the most of each one.
The first weekend we spent Friday night miniature golfing. Trafalga is close to us and has an indoor course so we went there. It's always fun and I beat Kevin! It's always a good day when that happens, because it's not very often. Ellie is really pretty good and in a few years will probably beat us both. Saturday night we took Ellie and her friend Isabel to see the movie Ponyo. We went to a little dollar theatre in American Fork where Kevin had heard there was mouse poop in the popcorn...of course he told the girls this but they still wanted some. :) The girls enjoyed the movie AND the popcorn (Kevin hated both) and nobody got sick.
On Sunday, we made our November craft at Grandma's. I think it was my favorite one so far. Ellie's turkey is in the middle, and Kevin's is the Ohio State bird on the right.
The next weekend Ellie was with Garred, but she did some incredible things. She and Garred went to a sub for Santa one mile fun run. She said she had her boots and reindeer gear on as Christmas dress was encouraged. She ran the entire mile and finished in ten minutes! She took second place!!! I was so excited to hear the stories.
That weekend, we got snow so she finally built the snowman she's been wanting to build for weeks. Her dad also took her and her cousin Analia to see the Disney Princesses on Ice. They had second row seats and Garred said she had a great time. He sent me this clip below...looks like fun! I love how into it she is and how she waves at the characters.
The third weekend Ellie went to her friend Ethan's birthday party. She was a little shy that day so played mostly with uncle Jed, but warmed up after a bit. They made their own candy Bakugan's and had a great time.
We also had another craft at Grandma's that Sunday (she is in the heavy craft months) they were supposed to be tee pees, but I think they look more like Christmas trees.
We also helped her decorate her tree because couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving. The kids did every last decoration and had so much fun. We were glad John could help reach the high branches and Ellie decorated herself.
The final weekend we started early and left after her Thanksgiving feast at school on Wednesday for Ohio for our own Thanksgiving feast. We got there pretty late but Ellie was so excited to be staying where there were two dogs and plenty of kids to play with on Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was such a great day. We spent it at Kevin's dad's house (Mickey and Linda) with plenty of tasty food and fun friends. There were six little girls in total for Ellie to play with and they went non-stop....inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs. I thought maybe after turkey they would slow down, but they didn't. They wore Kevin out tickling him and using him so they could fly. I got tired just watching them.
I don't do Black Friday because the crowds would drive me crazy, so instead we went to the Imagination Station in downtown Toledo. It's similar to the Children's museum in SLC and the Science Center in Seattle that we have been to, but it was by far my favorite of the three. We did just about everything and I honestly think Kevin and I had just as much fun as Ellie if not more. We did more things than I can remember...tug-of-war, pretend shopping, pretend hospital (with real x-rays,) building blocks, sailing boats and ducks, wind tunnels, circus dress-up, high wires, mind zones, magnets, and exploding (combustion) demos. We wore ourselves out and were starving after so we went to the Spaghetti Warehouse to fuel back up.
After, we decided to pick up Mickey and Linda and see the lights at the zoo. I was nervous because it really was cold after dinner, but luckily the wind stopped and it was a great night to see the lights. Once again, of all the zoos I've been to, I think this was my favorite. (I want to go back in the summer.) There weren't many animals to see in the night, but the lights were beautiful and the aquarium was open. We did get to see a few penguins and a pacing leopard.
Ellie loves maps and she and Kevin had to stop a few times to make sure we knew where Santa was and that we were on our way to him. In the end, the line for Santa was LONG so she traded visiting him for hot chocolate knowing that she would see him again.
The zoo was on 2 Hippo Way and I thought of my mom. The giraffe lights made me think of her too. It was such a fun night. Ellie really enjoyed Mickey and Linda and their two dogs and cried because we had to leave them that night.
Saturday we were off to Chicago to see Carrie, Jonathon and their new addition, Ethan. He's so cute. Did I mention he's cute? He really is.
Carrie and Jonathon took us to downtown Chicago where we got to see a few Christmas lights and eat dinner. We also got to take a peek in the American girl store (and of course Ellie wants one now) and browse the Disney store. Ellie ended up with a Jasmine Barbie which she played with on the plane ride home the next day.
Jonathon and Carrie have a ping-pong table in their basement; Jonathon told Ellie (because she's Asian) that ping pong was in her genes and tried to get her to play. After a couple of days, and a lot of gentle pushing on Kevin's part, she finally braved it and came to get me to watch because she "was awesome" at it now. It was so fun to see her confident about something new.
It was for sure a full month and I had so many pictures, I had a hard time limiting them...so this blog is FULL of pictures too. Gobble Gobble.
Tidbits I captured about Ellie in November. (More November pictures/stories to follow.)
Kevin made Ellie a quesadilla one night when I was in a late meeting. She told him, "They're not as good as mom's, but they are okay."
At the first of the month when it was still warm we decided to get the bikes down and go for one last ride before the snow hit. Kevin was taking down the bikes in the garage and Ellie said to Kevin, "You're the man of this house." A few minutes later while he was still getting everything ready and pumping up some tires Ellie said to me, "He's the boss with the secret sauce." We all just busted up. I guess she heard that on Sponge Bob (which I'm not 100% sure where she sees that show) but it was perfect delivery and so so funny.
One night while she was brushing her teeth and getting ready for bed she looked at her face and this is what she said, "I have a little bump on me, which freaks me out. Cause it's kind of like a little zipper, or whatever you call it!" She was referring to a zit and once again, she cracked me up. See if you can find the "zipper."
There was a song on the radio that said "counting sheep" so Ellie asked me how you count sheep. I told her you imagine sheep jumping over something and you count them as you fall asleep. The next night when I was putting her to bed she said, "Mom, could you google how you count sheep?" I already told you how. "Well, maybe you weren't right." This story is funny to me for several reasons. I don't think at five I ever thought my parents weren't right and I also think it's hilarious that my five year old knows that google has the answer to almost anything.
Ellie told me the meaning of BFF the other day, which was funny in itself, but then once again when we were driving in the car Ellie said, "Mom, is cousin spelled with a C or a K?" A C. "Well then Mason is my BCF, best cousin forever." So stinkin' cute.
Ellie likes to use my camera and while we were in Chicago she wanted to take a picture. This picture was taken by her; it's Kevin's mom Debbie, Kevin, me, Kevin's sister Carrie, and Carrie's husband Jonathon. After when we were looking at them she said, "I'm a good taker picture."
Which reminds me of one last thing she said, "Look at Grandma's cute hanger door."
Gosh I just love this kid and all the joy she brings me.
