Because One-at-a-Time Was Getting Too Easy

Delia's Second Limo Ride

Delia has not lived all that long-- two and a half years to be exact. She took the second limo ride of her short life this weekend. We have our friend Joann to thank. Joann hosts a great Christmas party each year. We can always expect fun food, warm bonfires, lots of church friends and a limo ride down Christmas Tree Lane at her parties. While the girls may grow up thinking this is somewhat normal, I am still just awed and delighted by the opportunity to view insanely decorated houses from inside a white stretch limo.

. Delia sat on Dave's side and I kept hearing, "Delia keep your body inside the vehicle!" from him. She was worse than Lily trying to hang her whole self out the open window to exclaim over lights and wave to pedestrians.

Ella loved the "stars" on the ceiling and made us all laugh when she announced, "Hey if anyone is thirsty, there are special drinks in here!"

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A ride on a horse last weekend, a ride in a "BIG, fancy car!" this weekend. I guess that's how we roll.

The Gingerbread Learning Curve

Ella has been asking to make a gingerbread house this Christmas. Yesterday, being the rainy and dreary day it was, seemed the perfect time to pull it out. We've never done this before and while we all had fun, we also learned some lessons.

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Lesson one: That frosting is a pain in the neck! It has the viscosity of toothpaste. Spreading and piping it was definitely a Daddy-job. Our house looked nothing like the ones on the cover of the kit!

Lesson two: Take the finished product picture quickly! When we tried to pose with it, we actually captured the moment when the whole house collapsed (below).

Lesson three: Surprise! The girls viewed decorating the house as a secret ploy to getting as much candy and frosting into their mouths as possible. I think Delia put 2 gummy bears on the roof and was done. She spent the next hour sneaking treats! Though with the spread that was before them and their parents distracted with decorating, who could blame them?

Our Mary, Our Star

Last night we had the great pleasure of watching Ella be Mary in the preschool Christmas program, "Jesus is Born!" I will try to hard to balance my pride with a bit of modesty for this record of the night. Ella's role was a big one and she played it just right! She and Joseph were the first ones up, riding a donkey, holding hands and exchanging lines about having to go to Bethlehem, being tired, naming the new baby Jesus, putting him in the manger for a bed and being thankful for the nice stable they had to rest in. Ella said each of her 4 lines with expression and enunciation and sang her solo about Emmanuel very loudly. Then it came time for the acting. Ella had to take a blanket and spread it in the manger, wrap up her baby, rock him, kiss him and lay down in the hay to rest. I whispered to Dave, "No wonder Ella got this part-- she plays this game with her dolls every single day!" The rest of the program had Ella stationed at the manger loving her baby and looking grateful for each of the visits they got from shepherds and wise men. She came up to mic to sing one more solo and then took the final curtain call with Joseph and baby Jesus.

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On the walk home from school yesterday, Ella told Dave that Miss Debbie said, "Ella, your mom and dad are going to laugh and cry and cover their open mouths with their hands because you'll be so cute!" Her teachers and many other audience members told us what a great job she did after the program last night. Once again, Ella had some special guests come to see her-- Gramma Jean and Pastor Bruce.

Okay, forget the modesty. Ella was totally adorable and perfect and we couldn't be prouder of her for getting the important Mary part and doing such a stellar job with it!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan and Amy!

Do you have one of those people in your life who seems to constantly overwhelm you with their thoughtfulness? Mine is my friend Amy. She always has her eyes open for things that she knows we can use and love. The girls are owners of princess markers, jammies, cute clothes and Hawaii books because the items were too perfect and the deal was too good for Amy to pass up. Last week she surprisingly showed up on my doorstep with a giant cookie making gift basket. It was something she had made with a Moms Time Out group and just had to pass on to us, knowing the girls would enjoy it so much. So, for her birthday on Saturday and Jonathan's birthday tomorrow, we just had to plan a special lunch playgroup for her!

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Jetta was also able to come with 4 of her kids. The kids played great for a few hours in the morning. Then they were too cute praying and eating their lunch around the little table together.

After turkey salad on croissants, my new favorite pear salad and ice tea (could my menu be any more girlie?), we broke out candles in brownies and cookies and sang to them both. It think it's pretty cool that Jonathan and Amy share their birthdays.

We gave Jonathan the new David Shannon book Too Many Toys. Since Amy is requesting library book donations for Jonathan's birthday this year beacuse they already have too many toys, we knew it would be perfect. Though, we're secretly a little happy that the book was such a hit, they'll probably keep it for themselves. Happy Birthday to my most thoughtful friend!

Not Braggin' Today!

I don't think I've ever had to raid the hat, gloves and scarves basket just for Ella and Dave's walk to school! Once again, we woke up to a winter wonderland. The ground, roofs, garden and outside toys were all covered with a white layer of frost. And yesterday it actually snowed! It was brief and just light flurries, so we didn't see it, but people were going absolutely nuts. It hasn't snowed in this part of California in 35 years! I often write warm weather report posts taunting our frigid-temperature-dwelling friends and relatives, but we're so unusually cold here, I have nothing to brag about today!

A Good Saturday

Saturday was a day of family Christmas fun. Dave read in the morning paper about this great holiday-themed farmer's market happening right outside a historical mansion in the next town over. We bundled up, shoved the wagon in the back of the car and headed over to check it out. We wandered the streets and shopped all the different booths selling local honey, olive oil, fruit, nuts, homemade jams and warm drinks. We had to get a bag of the made-in-front-of-us kettle corn because the smell was simply irresistible.

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All the market stands were great, but a real highlight was getting to tour the mansion built and decorated in the late 1800's. The docents were dressed in elaborate Victorian costumes and pointed out interesting things in each room. Ella and Delia really loved seeing the "Big fancy house" especially the kids' room with the antique dolls and tea party dishes.

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Another cool part of the festival was the street performers. We watched this group for a while, just because it was so funny-- grandmas in Santa hats and Christmas sweaters playing Christmas songs on their ukuleles! Of course, Delia danced.

After the festival, we stopped at the nursery to pick up some plants for our winter vegetable garden (gonna try lettuce this winter.) Inside the nursery we admired the dozens of decorated trees and mega-train set with just about every Dickens Village figurine that has ever been made.

The night ended with a fund-raising dinner at church. Our GEMS hosted a brand-new Western-themed dinner that was sooo awesome! We giggled at Dave and Pastor Bruce's pictures on the Want Ads, avoided being put in jail and played all the games (horse shoes, fishing hole, shooting gallery, panning for gold, etc.). Dave and I dressed up in borrowed cowboy gear (the girls were wearing their own thanks to Delia's Halloween costume) and had our family picture taken. But we spent the majority of the night on horseback! That's right. We have lots of horse owners in our church and someone brought a whole trailer full of them for rides around the parking lot. Poncho and Ellen were good friends by the end of the night! :)

Off to Church

Why I Don't Pull Out the Paints Every Day

In case you can't tell, those are fifteen masterpieces drying on the line! Anyone need some artwork for their fridge?

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A Home Ella Approves of this Season

Man, did we hear it last year! Ella is a total Christmas lover. She exclaims over decorations in the store. She is the first to turn the Christmas tree on each morning. She says things like, "I'm a little bored, what should we do? I know! Let's open just one present." And whenever she saw a decorated house last year, she reminded us that our own home was unlit and unbeautiful. So, we indulged her and bought a few strings of icicle lights on clearance at the end of the season last year and for the first time ever did a little outside decorating. The lights went up around 2:00 this afternoon. We've all trooped out to admire them, not kidding, at least six times tonight! Hey, what's an hour of dangling off the roof with a staple gun when it comes to the happiness of your daughters?

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