That's right - I am referring to Christmas. Like most of our holidays, we get started by decorating the house. The Saturday after Thanksgiving is our traditional day to hand select our perfect tree. If you've been reading for awhile, you know how I feel about the tree. Basically there is some connection I have to trees in general. Anyway...Kevin wanted a twelve foot tall tree this year so we let him give the final say. Yet actually it WAS a group effort that even involved grandma now that we live closer.
The tree we picked ended up being around 9 feet tall. We were glad because as they get taller they also get wider. Kevin always gets the task of putting the lights on the tree. We made multiple runs to the store over the next couple of days for more lights - in the end we had 16 strands of lights on our tree! I think the combination of getting started late in the day and having a new house delayed our progress. It took us (or me really) several days to get the decorations just right. I had to decorate the porch and then redecorate it. It was perfect the second time. :D
Some of Ellie's traditional things to do while decorating -
The tree-skirt dance:
The red and green little balls:
And of course, the candy dish:
A new candy I tried putting out this year was a Toblerone. Ellie tried one and didn't like it. She said, "Ew, I don't like those Tyrones." Another good laugh for our family.
By December first I was ready with the house decorated, the Advent calendar stuffed and Kevin had outside lights on the house. He freaked me out doing it....hanging from the roof - overextending on the ladders, but since I am writing this in February I can tell you the lights went up and came down with no incidents. (And they were beautiful.) Kevin wanted to go Clark W. Grizwold on the lights, but decided after paying for them we better add to little by little each year.
Chip, our house elf didn't wait until December to get here. He appeared the morning after we got our tree and kept appearing each morning. We had so much fun with Chip this year and we are glad he came back to our house. Look at all of the fun places he found to hang out.
Ellie finished her tree the Sunday morning after we got the big one. Chip appeared under it that first night with a letter in hand for her. She did all of the decorations herself.
We all helped on the big tree with just about everything. I LOVED our tree and took multiple pictures of it.
December 1st - Ellie got started on her Advent calendar. I have to admit I stuffed it with some fun things this year. The first day she found tissues with 'I heart Santa' on them. There were various candy treats, little erasers, a jingle ring, a yo-yo and really just 24 fun days of love.
On the 2nd Grandma treated us to a little Gingerbread house display and a frozen yogurt. We had a lot of fun looking at the creations and finding the hidden objects in larger houses. After we finished with our yogurt we were driving back home and one of us said how much fun it was. Ellie said, "Yes, it was real fun." And then we were all quiet and a few seconds later she said, "Well, I don't know about that." Meaning, it was fun, but maybe not REAL fun. We of course just cracked up.
On Sunday the 4th Ellie helped Grandma decorate her house for Christmas and then enjoyed some root beer floats with Uncle Jed.
Monday the 5th we teamed up with our friends the Vanderlinden family and went to see the zoo lights and then to dinner at Red Robin. The girls got to see Santa, write their first letter to him, and sit on his lap. We had to bundle up because we went on one of the actual cold nights of December, but we had so much fun. As you can see from the pictures, Kevin played just as hard as the girls.
Tuesday the 6th was one of my favorite days of the season - Ellie's piano recital. Ellie did one solo and one duet with her new teacher, Heather McQuisten. We LOVE Heather. She is so sweet and kind and has really changed piano for Ellie. Ellie has not complained about practice and has really enjoyed learning. She did such a great job on her songs and it honestly just makes me so happy. I love listening to her practice. I think she liked December piano even more than normal because Heather focuses on Christmas songs that month. It's so great to have Ellie playing them!
We made and delivered treats to all of our neighbors in our new neighborhood. It was fun to go around together as a family and meet all of the people that live nearby. I think we made and delivered over 30 bags of treats. When we stopped at Heather's house, she had a gift for Ellie. Ellie loved the blanket and had to get it out and use it on the short ride home.
On the 8th Ellie got a letter from Santa in the mail. It's always fun to hear from Santa!
And speaking of Santa - he made a visit to our house this year for our Heath family party! Ellie was super excited to have him come to our house. There was much discussion around if it would be the real Santa or if it would be one of his helpers. She decided the one at the zoo was a helper because he called her Allie instead of Ellie - so the real Santa was the one that came to our house. We had the traditional family party with lots of people and food. Thank goodness they aren't a picky family and could deal with our unfinished basement. I think we were all just happy to be together.
As you can see from her face, she was genuinely excited about what Santa brought her. She said, "I got everything I wanted!"
I gave Ellie a little book of Christmas coupon activities she got to do each day. One day was to send a Christmas card to someone. She did this one by herself using stickers from her Advent calendar. Look at the creativity with the stickers used as words. Of course she picked her card to go to Mason - I mean really, who else?
And one more story from that day....we were cleaning the house getting ready for the party and Ellie found a fun way to do her chore.
Backing up just one day...Kevin and I went to his work Christmas party on the 9th so Ellie had a sleepover with Grandma. The next morning we called and this is her talking to me while playing war with bear. I'm not sure who won.
On Sunday the 11th, Ellie started the day with breakfast in bed (one of her Christmas coupon activities) and I made Kevin the ultimate sweet breakfast...just like he likes it. I would go into a sugar coma if I ate that!
That night we went to Grandma's for the annual gingerbread house making. Kevin wished he had gone with us to see the houses earlier in the month to get some ideas, but really he didn't need to. He always comes up with something fun. It typically takes him 30 minutes longer than everyone else - but when you build an entire airport - what can you expect! I'm really not sure if now we enjoy making the houses or just seeing what Kevin comes up with.
And here are our masterpieces!
The next three nights we tried (and finally succeeded) at another one of our family favorite traditions, the Angel Tree.
So, day 1 - we ventured out to the mall, our traditional spot, to get an angel from the tree - yet after much searching we couldn't find one! Macy's didn't have the tree this year, the generic mall tree had already been done, JCPenny had one, but it was all done on-line, Costco had one, but only for their employees, and finally the credit union was all out - it was pretty much a night of running around with no success. We did manage one picture at the mall. Ellie had her Santa hat on but even that didn't bring us luck that night.
So, day 2 I called around and found another credit union really close to our house that still had Angels! We rushed over after school and before they closed to get our girl! The only bad part was now we only had until 6 PM the next day to get all of our shopping done. Ellie went with her dad this night so Kevin and I went to the Children's Place to get a few things.
So, finally day 3 after school and piano, Kevin came home early from work and we raced to get some toys and a few more clothes. We dropped off the goods with 57 minutes to spare. It was a bit of a run-around this year, but more than worth it. Our Angel this year was Guadalupe. She was Ellie's age so easy for us to shop for. It is so good for our little family to spend time doing this each year. It has easily become one of our favorite traditions and I couldn't be happier that Ellie understands and enjoys giving. Ellie had a funny mix up with her name and called her Gouda. We sure hope Gouda received and enjoyed her gifts! We celebrated our victory that night with dinner at the Olive Garden (Ellie's favorite). We couldn't help but laugh at the irony of Olive Garden's very own giving tree - full of names!
When we finally made it home that night, Ellie was excited to find Chip outside, building a snowman with some of the only snow we got in December.
On the 15th we went to Ellie's school for the winter sing. I wish I could post every song because they are seriously so cute. Here are just a couple of cute videos.
I do love when they do the traditional songs as well. I was just having memory issues with my camera - ugh.
On the 16th we went back to the school to help with the class Christmas party. I should mention that Kevin was off of work from December 7th until the first of the year so he got to come with me. It was fun to have him there and I think Ellie enjoyed having both of us. The night of our Heath Christmas party we made reindeer puppets. They went really well so we took them to do as the craft for her school party. We also took a wrapping game with us, but ran out of time so only the first group got to do it. I really treasure the time I get to spend in the classroom and love so many of her classmates. Many of them we have now known for a few years and they just get cuter every year.
Now that we are half way through the month I should probably pause and give you a break. It was an exciting month and I jammed in as much Christmas as I could into every single day. Of course along with this we were shopping and wrapping and cooking - which leads us to the next half of the month. At this point I too was off of work, Ellie out of school and I must say - life was pretty grand just celebrating the season and being together.
Tamales and chile verde are one of the Heath family traditions at Christmas time and really it was about time I got on board and made some. My mom came over Saturday morning the 17th and taught me to make tamales. We did chile verde later in the month. It was really great hanging out with her and learning to make them. I'm sure I've said it enough times before, but I love our family traditions and I look forward to the day we get to do this one with Ellie.
Ellie had a skating party to go to that day for her friend Rachel's brother. While we were cooking, Mr. Tootwater made a special appearance.
Ellie said at the party she took basically one lap around on skates and then she and Rachel spent the rest of the time in the bounce houses. Sounds just like Ellie.
On the 18th, Ellie redeemed a coupon to build a fort. It wasn't quite big enough for the three of us so first she and Kevin played a few games in the fort and then Ellie and I did.
With much encouragement from mom, Ellie also finished her first sewing project. She had started it while we were in
Boise. It is proudly hanging on her wall. I remember a few of my first craft projects like that. One Halloween there was a razor in the apple scare so instead of trick-or-treating my mom got me a latch hook kit. I was probably about the same age as Ellie is now. I honestly can't remember exactly what it was, but I remember it was green - probably close to the same color as Ellie's owl.
On the 19th Ellie had to get a filling replaced in her tooth. She was so good at the dentist - she always is actually. But after she was still numb and we couldn't get enough of her funny lips. She tried to do kissy lips.
We knew we had to capture it on video for many years of laughs.
That afternoon, after Ellie had full face motion again, we went to see Arthur Christmas. We had heard bad reviews but have no idea where they came from - we loved it and who doesn't love going to the movie on a Monday with no work and no school?
On the 20th - as we were enjoying our time off we finally used one of our Christmas gifts from last year to go make glass blown flowers. It was so cool. We each got to make our own. I wasn't sure if Ellie would do it, so I went first, but then she was ready. She sat down and rolled, pushed and pulled her flower.
After, we grabbed a drink and saw Hi-C. We had to take a picture to remember this story. One day while with Kevin they were getting drinks for dinner and Ellie had put Hi-C in her drink mix. She was making what my dad called a wild Indian - a mixture of several drinks. She was telling Kevin what she put in it so he could tell me and she said, "and some hick" - phonetically I think that is correct. :D
Back to our day....we headed to the mall to do some Christmas shopping for Ellie's dad. I loved the shoe/sock look Ellie had going on. She typically does have some crazy socks - it's kind of her thing. She got this pair in her Advent calendar.
We didn't find what we were looking for at the first mall, so while we were headed to the second we got a call from our dentist saying Ellie had won the Sonicare toothbrush he was giving away. I'm not sure if she or I was more excited. We made a slight detour to go pick it up.
Next we were off to fulfill one of my many Christmas crazies. I wanted each person to have his own paper and his own tags - so we spent the next hour cutting out letter tags for our presents.
Then off to the mall to finish shopping - we took a break to write more letters to Santa. Kevin must have been naughty this year because he didn't get what he asked for.
Then back home to wrap our presents, and I will say they turned out super cute. This is one without ribbon, but to show the cute letters we cut out.
And really, if that is not enough to fit into one day, our final event was Ellie's first day of Girl Scouts! She quickly made friends with this little girl (who told me that Ellie and her were now BFF's) and enjoyed her first activity which was their Christmas party. Ellie was a bit concerned about when she would get her sash, when they would start to earn badges and why were they just having a party? Ellie was ready to learn!
On the 21st Leea and I had a Polar Express party for our girls. We gave them matching pj's, made Santa faces, wore Rudolf noses, had hot chocolate and watched the movie.
That night Kevin and Ellie were playing a game (can't remember where I was) but Ellie was making up a new game with one of her old games and when Kevin disputed the rules she said, "These are the rules of the jewels."
By the 22nd I think we were a bit worn out so we stayed home, opened a few presents early and Ellie quickly got busy putting one to use.
And then a bit later, playing with a few more.
Kevin and Ellie both modeled our craft from the prior day.
I know it may seem that this post and our December was Christmas overloaded - which it was. Yet, to make sure you don't explode, I will save the next seven days for a new post. I will probably have to title it, "Christmas with Mason" because the next day...after all of this pre-Christmas activity - Mason, and Christmas, arrived!
