Merry Christmas!

What a great Christmas we had! Jonathan and I were awake bright and early with anticipation at about 6:50am, thinking Ell might awaken early knowing Santa had probably come. So we waited. And waited. And waited. And talked a lot. And waited. And watched TV. And waited... Until she finally woke up at 8:15 and came down the hallway. She was a little hesitant, and wanted to make sure I would go down with her and hold her hand. When she saw the presents she smiled, and asked me to help her open the first one. I'm not sure why she was being shy about it at first. But then she quickly got into it. Santa brought her a new doll house, complete with all the fixins.

Then we got to open lots of presents from family, too.

Ellison unwrapped our gift from God, the baby Jesus to place in the manger. She got a kick out of opening a series of nesting boxes to get to our ultimate Christmas gift.

After opening up the goodies and playing and baking, we went over to our friends, the Spences, for a delicious brunch with a bunch of great friends. The Spences invite over anyone who doesn't have family in town to come and join together to celebrate on Christmas morning. It was our second year going, and we enjoyed it so much! Ellison is in love with the Spence kids' new rockin' kitchen set, and of course requested one just like it to replace her dinky little one. While we were there we were thrilled to see the beautiful surprise of a white Christmas coming to fruition!

After coming home for naps and more cooking and playing, we traipsed through the beautiful fallen (and falling) snow to our next-door neighbors, the Confortes (Nani Joan and Mr. Bill according to Ellison), for a big Christmas dinner with a house full of people. Even though we didn't know many of the people there, we had such a great time visiting in a nice, relaxed atmosphere. Ellison, shy at first, quickly warmed up, and had the best time, too. She was such an angel, and was being so polite and sweet, and just behaved very well. Whew! I wasn't sure based on how the last couple of weeks have gone.

Then it was back home to chill the rest of the evening and enjoy the gorgeous falling snow coming down outside. What a great Christmas!

[December 25, 2010]