The Dad, played by Ricardo;
The Mom, played by Alexis;
The Big Sister,played by Gabriella;
The Little Sister, played by Sofia;
The Dog, played by Mikka Moo
Since we're heading out to CA tomorrow (12/16) to spend Christmas and New Years in San Francisco with our families, we decided to do our own little Christmas here in NJ with the girls so that we could open presents that were too big to travel.
Ella was so excited to make and leave out cookies for Santa the night before and then ran right up to bed. But then she started whimpering in her room and said that she was afraid Santa was going to come in to her room. I had to laugh because my friend, Karen, told me that when she was little she flipped out when she thought Santa came into her room and I think her exact words were, "I don't want a fat man in a red suit to come into my room. Keep him out!".
Cookies for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer)
Ella checking to see if Santa had eaten his cookies
Opening presents
Papa and Abuela bought Sofia a Fisher-Price Smart Bounce and Spin Pony. Sofia LOVES it. She just periodically mounts it throughout the day, gives it a couple bounces and then continues doing what she was doing. Ella loves it too and luckily for her I called Fisher-Price to find out the weight limit, and Ella is well under it...although I'm thinking their combined weight is NOT under it.
We got Ella the Fisher-Price Loving Family Twin Time Dollhouse. She was in heaven and played for hours in her room.
I think what impressed me the most about the day was how well the girls shared with each other and how Ella was truly excited for Sofia and the gifts she received.
Lucky girls get to celebrate not only Christmas AND Hanukkah but this year they get 2 Christmases and Hanukkah!
Saturday night was our town's Annual "Home For The Holidays" parade.
It was a really nice night for the parade-about 35 degrees and no wind. Last year it was in the low 20's but it was super windy so with the windchill it was in the teens! Since Sofia was just a newborn we opted to skip it, which made us sad, because Ella loved it so much the year before, so we were really happy that the weather was decent this year. We're extra lucky because today has been freezing, with very high winds and a low tonight of 16 degrees (2 degrees with the windchill).
We met Ramin, Diana, Natalie, and Jeremy at The Iron Horse before the parade for dinner and then walked outside to enjoy the parade right in front of the restaurant. Both girls just loved it and Ella was so excited to see Santa-even though he didn't throw out candy this year... you know the economy is bad when even Santa is cutting back!
This is a horrible picture but I was trying to show how packed it was. We were towards the end of the parade and there was just a sea of people all the way down Westwood Ave. It was really cool!
Westwood Parade is the big time now-We've got floats! An attempt at a picture with Ella. She was way too in to the parade to look at a camera!
Poor Sofia and Jeremy looked like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" Ralphie and Daddy
We tried to get a picture of Ella and Natalie but we couldn't get them to look at the camera at the same time. Diana might have a decent picture on her camera, but I got nothing!
Ella enjoying the parade Doesn't Sofia look miserable here? Then she saw Santa!
It was really a great time and something I really love about our town. Now we just have to wait to find out what night Santa come down our street on top of the fire truck. I think my favorite part is the loudspeaker announcing "Santi Clauus is coming, Santi Clauus is coming!"
This morning we decided to make sugar cookies for our wonderful neighbors and mailman. Holy cow! Sugar cookies are so time consuming and even though you put in a ton of effort, they still come out looking horrible. But, like our gingerbread house, it was fun, and Ella had a blast making them and bringing them to our neighbors houses and our neighbors enjoyed receiving them. :)
Rolling the dough Making the cut outs
Coloring the frosting
Decorating her cookie The finished product
I know I keep saying this, but it's been so fun celebrating holidays with Ella this year. She's so in to them.
I had to laugh tonight though while reading Ella her Hanukkah books tonight....so this is America.
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
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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?
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