Christmas 2010

Sally Sharp & Avi in their Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve

We had an eventful Christmas (4 different Christmas celebrations). I have to admit, (even though there are a lot of pics here), I did not do a great job at taking pictures this year. I missed taking pics at Christmas with Granddaddy & Shug, with the Elliott extended family (Nana's extended family), and with Nana.

Avi with Mimi & Nana on Christmas morning.

The loot from Santa and Mom & Dad on Christmas morning.

The big item this year was dress up clothes, and she LOVES them. She puts on at least one costume a day. I've tried to limit it to one a day--so we are not changing every 5 minutes. So far that has worked well. Her favorite thus far is her Silver Mist costume (a friend of Tinker Bell). We believe Santa thought he was bringing a Tinker Bell costume, but in his hurry, he left Silver Mist instead :). Avi also got several classic Disney movies. We are watching Beauty and the Beast as I type this. She loves Snow White as well, but she had a hard time getting into Mary Poppins. The first part is a little less than little kid friendly...we will have to try that one again soon, and I will start it where Mary Poppins comes into the movie.

Another favorite gift was Avi's camera (this was actually a gift she got for her birthday when she turned 2, and I'm glad we waited to get it out now because the button is kind of hard to push~thanks Jack Fountain.) It is actually a really cool camera that has different "pictures" you can put in it. When you push the button, they come out the bottom. Although she really has no idea that a camera used to really work that way, she likes it nonetheless! She is used to looking at the pictures on the camera right after they were taken.

We were late getting our tree up and decorating it this year. It is kind of a pitiful little tree (picture on the right), but truly we have NO room at the Inn for a tree any bigger than this one...until next year when we are in our new house!

A tradition we started this year was singing making a cake and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. In true Kelli fashion, we spent Christmas Eve day at my parent's house, and I was just sure we had a cake mix at home. I knew we had chocolate icing (I had seen it earlier in the week). However, when we got home, come to find out what I thought was a cake mix box was actually a mix for muffins. Disappointment. Drew was already about to make his favorite crumb cake, so we decide that would have to do for Jesus's birthday cake this year. You might be able to tell in the picture that Drew ate part of our cake before we sang Happy Birthday--just typical in our household!

On Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas story out of the Bible, and we also read Twas the Night Before Christmas. These are some of my favorite pics. I love watching her listen to Drew read her books.

Pics with Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve.

Avi wore her Cinderella costume with her rain boots all Christmas Day. I honestly can't remember exactly what she was doing in this picture, but she was dancing, I'm sure...AND enjoying a snack of cookies.

And, of course we opened more gifts at my parent's house. She got a Tootsie Roll Ornament with her favorite tootsie rolls inside! She also got some new books from Abbi & Joel--Purplicious & Goldilicious, the sister books to Pinkalicious that Nana gave her for her birthday. Madison came down with the flu on the Wednesday before Christmas (we were supposed to go visit her in Brandon that day but didn't get to go), and we thought we would not get to see Sheri & Madi for Christmas this year, but she made a miraculous recovery and was fever free for 24 hours by Christmas morning, so they were able to join us by lunchtime. We were so thankful they were able to make it.

Avi telling Papa something with her wand, and Abbi & Sally Sharp.

Sally Sharp was a trooper through all of our adventures. While she totally got off her schedule, and her once great morning naps disappeared, we are slowly trying to get back on track. She started daycare last Monday, and overall she had a really good week. I also started back to work last week. Classes started Wednesday. It will take us a while to get back in a routine, but I look forward to creating and maintaining that routine!