speaking of an elf.....this little man magically showed up one night much to emma's delight :) the little girls named him "magic" and emma named him "sam" which I thought was after her cousin naturally but was informed later that it was after a boy in her class. uh oh.
this picture makes me laugh. she has discovered and is reading the book "elf on the shelf" and has absolutely NO idea of our new resident and that he is RIGHT above her on the light fixture.
spotted. we kinda had a LOVE/scared to death relationship with the elf. she only wanted him to come as long as he didn't go upstairs and more specifically didn't want him in her bathroom??
the elf left emma a note and here she is showing me that Santa must have sharpies too because his marker looks like the ones we own as well. duly noted.
I just have to say that this elf was truly magical in more ways than one. Wade stepped on our christmas lights when he was unplugging the tree one night and broke one bulb so of course the bottom row went out and I replaced the bulb but still couldn't get it to work. Literally after we found the elf in the tree one morning the lights worked again. I told Wade "thanks for fixing the lights" and he said "I didn't". who doesn't love a little Christmas magic! And if you can't tell I really liked taking pictures of christmas light bokeh - I can hands down promise you it will be on our christmas card next year!
we also ALL decorated "gingerbread" houses this year. I went the homemade route but decided to skip the "glue to a milk carton step" and just hot-glued the graham cracker pieces together.
ummm...yeah. you need the milk cartons although I have to say that my favorite part of decorating this year was when one side collapsed and without missing a beat, emma said "well.....now it's just a manger. no big deal". dramatic catastrophe averted.
we of course made cookies for santa - little girls included again. I didn't take any pictures and after we finished lucy said, "mama, cookies say cheese" and then went and got her camera which the other two followed suit. like mother like daughters. love these little ones.
if this doesn't make you smile, then I don't know what will - children in their christmas jammies heading home on Christmas Eve to wait on santa. this was by far my favorite year.
a cousin sandwich. they just love each other so much it's unbelievable and I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world!!
and susu celebrated with us this year and spoiled the kiddos rotten which falls in the great-aunt guidelines right?!?
and so did santa. emma wanted a bunny house and an american girl bathtub and the little girls wanted a house they could paint {that kate had spotted in a catalog}. they must have been on the "nice" list because they got their wishes plus a few surprises! my favorite moment from christmas morning was when kate brought me one of her presents and said "this one for baby Jesus, mama!"
and this may come as a surprise but I only took one picture on Christmas morning and no pictures in florence. I took the approach of being in the moments this year instead of capturing them. Plus my camera doesn't like low-lighting and was giving me major attitude ;)
and on New Years Eve eve we took the girls to ride the reindeer carousel at the mall. It was on my list of things to do before Christmas that got side-lined when I did as well with sickness.
they loved it and I was glad we finally made it! kate on cupid:
lucy on donner:
and emma on blitzen:
and that's it for 2011! twas a great year but I know 2012 is going to be even better! Happy New Year!!
