Thanksgiving Weekend

We had another fun weekend, filled with friends, family, food, and of course, a Birthday party.

I forgot to pull out the camera on Thanksgiving Day but we had a wonderful meal together and then went over to Su Su and Papa Rick's house and shared our desserts. I love that all my girls (Mikka included) just make themselves at home at their house.

Just a cute picture of Daddy and Sofia

Abeula usually colors her hair to cover up the ahem, grey, but this trip she didn't and Ella just could not get over it. She kept telling her, "Abuela, you're old. Abuela, you need to go to Kelly (Ella's hairdresser) and get your hair colored. Abuela you need to color your hair." Poor Abuela was getting a major complex, so when Ella offered to "color" her hair purple with her marker, she accepted...
The things Grandmas do for their grandkids!

Here's another random picture that I love. The girls play together so much now. I love that they go off together and I can hear them interacting with each other. They were playing alone in the sunroom and Ricardo snuck in and called them to get this picture.
Friday morning, at the crack of dawn, Abuela (Maggie) and I hit the Black Friday sales. Boy, were we out early (left the house at 4:30 am!). We did get some great deals but I'm really not much of a 5 am shopper. I think I'll stick to my online bargains from now on.

Friday evening we just had leftovers and then Ricardo and I went out to see Four Christmases. It was such a funny movie, but it was set in SF, so we both left feeling a little nostalgic and home-sick.

Saturday during the day we put up all our Christmas decorations. I know, I'm a good Jewish girl, but I have to admit, that I got teary eyed while putting ornaments of the tree with Ella. Like other holidays, this is the first year she really "gets" the holidays. She had such a great time putting the ornaments on the tree and explaining what each one is. She keeps telling Ricardo that she decorated the tree by herself. She'll walk into the sunroom and look at it and say, "Wow! That's my pretty tree."

It's just nice seeing the excitement and wonder in her eyes. It's nice to see a tradition in the family forming.


We put the tree in the sunroom because it's a nice space for it, plus it looks really pretty from the outside of the house, but what's really cute is Ella likes to pretend that the sunroom is her "house". She has a play kitchen in there so she'll invite you to her house (you have to knock on the door) and cook you a meal and then invite you to take a nap. Well now that the tree is in there, she's so excited. She'll say, "Look at my beautiful tree. I decorated it by myself. Do you like my tree?"

Here's the tree all decorated (yes, it's a fake, and I got it for $25 from Wal-Mart on Black Friday, baby!)

Ella even got her own tree too...pinkalicious!

Here's a couple more of our interior decorations-I need to take pictures from the outside as well.

The mantle with a fire burning
My table centerpiece
Random

We've added more decorations since I took pictures. Ella picked out a felt snowman for her's and Sofia's bedroom doors and we hung up some more stuff. It's been really fun this year.

Saturday evening, we had our friends, Diana, Ramin, Natalie (Ella's friend and classmate), and little brother Jeremy, over for dinner and dessert. We always have such a nice time with them and the girls had a great time playing together. I was too busy cooking to take pictures but I did snap this one of Natalie and Ella playing Polly Pockets in bed together.

Sunday, we had a 4th birthday party for our friend Ben (of the famed Ben and Jessica). He had his party at "In The Swing", which is where Ella had hers and since it was a smaller group of kids, the hostess let me go in the playland with Sofia. Sofia had a blast playing around where all the big kids were.

The Birthday Boy, Ben!

Ella, of course, had a blast, but was so tired and even came home a took a 3 hour nap. I think this picture shows just how tired she was. Look at those bags under her eyes! Poor girl!

But that didn't stop her from playing!

Sofia loved the popping bubble wrap game
But she wasn't too sure about the Sponge Bob Birthday Hat
But Ella was ecstatic to sit with Jessica
And Sofia was ecstatic to well, eat.

Then later in the day we *attempted* to make a Gingerbread House. In our defense, a lot of the house pieces were already broken. That's what we get for buying a set at The Christmas Tree Shop. So the wreckage that is our Gingerbread House is not TOTALLY our fault.

This is what it *should have* looked like...

Working on it

.

Why yes, I am wearing pajama bottoms...

We're just calling it our San Francisco post '89 Earthquake Gingerbread House...what matters the most is Ella and Sofia had a great time putting it together and even if we're all snickering behind (and in front) of their backs, Ella is very proud of it...oh, don't think we aren't keeping these pictures to show her how artistic she was.

TADA!!!!!!!!

and it's still the centerpiece of our table. Ella won't allow it to be removed until after Christmas...would this be considered a Charlie Brown Gingerbread House?