Christmas Eve

How lucky are we? To be able to spend Christmas as a whole family. I can't describe just how happy I was this holiday season to have Tom home with us and to have him see firsthand the excitement of his girls over every little thing involving Christmas. I feel like he has missed so much in their young lives, but we are certainly making up for it.

Christmas Eve was exactly as we always have it. A pretty relaxing day with a few last minute errands and then we headed to Mass and home for some delicious fondue. It's our Eve tradition and I never intend to break it. This year though Madeline did a lot of whining and begging for the fondue forks and eventually we gave in, but I thought she was going to stab herself or someone else at the table. I might need to look into a kid's fondue set because a regular fork wasn't keeping her smiling. She knew better. After dinner, my mom read the girls The Night Before Christmas...a few times...and we set out a plate for Santa and his reindeer; Cookies and eggnog for Santa and carrots for his helpful flying friends. However, we caught Madeline on multiple occasions drinking the last drop of eggnog from Santa's mug and popping a few gingerbread cookies into her mouth. We needed to refill more than once. Sneaky little middle child;)

In church...I can already see Madeline's plan to be naughty

Fondue and family. Two of my loves:)

Love that Papa is holding her hand

Pics in front of the tree were interesting to say the least.  

Tom waiting patiently for everyone to behave 

I think they paid more attention to this book than to The Night Before Christmas

And Tom's version of The Night Before Christmas

Nighttime

I am so glad my parents were able to visit and that my mom quickly grabbed the camera to capture this shot of our family on a typical evening at bedtime.

Holiday Goodies

We kept busy this holiday season trying to fill our days with little activities. Bored kids = annoyed mom. I much prefer it when the girls are busy little bees and they aren't bugging me every second to play with them. I know that probably sounds bad. I promise I do spend a lot of time interacting with them, but I am a firm believer that parents should not have to entertain their children 24 hours a day. They need to be able to play on their own. After all, how else would the laundry get folded? ;) At the end of the day though "You will always be your child's favorite toy". Love that quote.

Decorating gingerbread men. The absolute worst decorating kit I have ever seen. Willy Wonka, totally disappointed! The gingerbread was gross, the icing didn't stick to the man and luckily it included a box of Nerds to occupy Madeline while my mom and I cursed the whole situation. 

We made our own edible Christmas trees! 

She is a huge fan of icing.

He was proud of his tree and the fact that he used the gold Hershey's Kiss as a star. His creativity really enthralls all of us.

We made cinnamon applesauce ornaments. The girls LOVED this. The house smelled really good afterwards as well. Ella gave her dance teachers each one for a gift. No lie, I still have a cinnamon applesauce ornament from my 5th grade teacher and it stilllll smells!

Final products!

QT with Gma and Gpa

After ice skating that day in OKC, we headed to a nearby park to tire the girls out even more. We've actually had some family photos (Ella's ONE year photos) done here and have always loved this area. The weather was perfect for playing outside so we took advantage of it.

Somehow tiny Princess Belle made it in the photo as well.

 

Notice that it spells "GROW"? 

Johnny Weir in da house!

For all of you who do not know Johnny Weir...here he is...

It's very convenient that when my parents were here we were watching the Today Show and and JW was ice skating in Rockerfeller Center looking much like that picture in all of his flamboyant getup. Johnny Weir became my dad's new nickname for Tom. They love to pick on each other. Next thing you know, we are all headed to OKC to do a little ice skating. 

Ella has loved ice skating for the past two years that we have taken her, but this year she hated it. I can't figure out why. Part of me just thinks she was in a cranky mood. Or maybe it was the fact that the ice was melted and gross looking. We all know Ella is a bit of a perfectionist/girly girl. Can't have brown puddles of dirty water on the rink God forbid! Instead, Madeline finally got her chance on the ice and loved it. Originally, I wasn't going to let her try it. The overprotective mom came out in me and I was a little nervous she would fall and break something. But she begged and I gave in. She rocked it. And was ALL smiles. 

So happy to start skating

"ewwwww what is up with the dirty ice?"

Full on Johnny Weir right here. Just missing the fingerless gloves.

Such a cute, attentive dad

Skates are all laced up!

Standing on her own...not too bad!

Pouting. But I still love this picture. Life isn't always all rainbows.

With Papa and happy again