Christmas, Christmas time is here

I love Christmas.  All the magic and wonder, lots of time to spend with family... and the food is pretty ok too :)

We chose to just put up a small tree on our dining table since a certain little man can't be trusted not to smash ornaments or pull down entire trees.

 Eleda discovering that Santa brought her the Lalaloopsy doll she so desperately wanted.

 And her My Little Pony.  She must have been really nice this year, because Santa brought her 2 of each!

 Ashton enjoyed himself even though we kept him strapped in his chair to keep the chaos to a minimum.

 After we had opened all our gifts at home (and I had a nap since I wasn't feeling well) we headed over to my mom & dad's place for round two.  I should have taken photos of us both, but my mom made Eleda and I matching aprons!

 Poor Eleda started feeling under the weather later in the day, but she was still a good sport.

Cuteness overload

Eleda had her first ever recital this Christmas.  She has been doing really well in her dance class, and we were so excited to see her show her stuff!  The day was a mess... we got a big snow dumping the night before, so while I thought we had a ton of time to get there, it took Alan a while to find the car under the snow, so we were running late.  We rushed in just as the recital was about to start, and moments after this first photo was taken, Eleda started crying that she had to go to the bathroom.  So she missed the little warm up dance, but such is life.

 This is Eleda's dance instructor, Miss Liliane.  She is amazing and I love her, as does Eleda.

 When she rejoined the class following the bathroom break, Eleda burst into tears, I think more because she didn't know what to do than out of stage fright.  You can see from her little red nose that she'd been crying.  But Miss Liliane handed out the bears for the Teddy Bears Picnic dance, and all was well :)

 For a special treat, the older girls came out to dance for and with the little ones.  It was so sweet.

After the ballet portion of the programme, the girls all went off to change while Miss Lilliane attempted to teach all the adults the Cha cha cha.  Hilarity ensued.

Next it was time for the tap dance... Eleda really likes tap.  She will often show me her shuffle and scoobie doo dance moves.

 Notice the pointer fingers:

 And of course after all that hard work, a break for many delicious snacks must be taken.

 I made a "magic wand" for each of the little girls.  Here Anna and Eleda were playing princesses.  Perfection.

Advent

I crocheted an advent calendar for Ashton this year.  Eleda has one I got at Starbucks a few years ago with little drawers that you can fill.  I like it because it's not full of unknown foreign chocolate, so I can select what goes in for each day.  I made this one for Ashton by making little pockets to slip the daily treats into.

This year they got some chocolate kisses, money, and hair things/hot wheels.  I think next year some of the days will have a coupon for a holiday activity, like baking cookies, watching a movie, going skating, etc.

White gifts

Each year shortly before Christmas our church has a day called White Gift Sunday.  Everyone brings a gift to be donated (food, toys) and wraps them in white.  Eleda was asked to pull the wagon carrying the nativity scene down the aisle up to the altar.  She takes her job really seriously.

 After the service there is always a lunch, followed by a visit from Santa.  Once again, both of my kids loved every minute of it.  Eleda had been asked what she wanted for Christmas so many times at this point that she had her little schpiel down pat: books, a Lalaloopsy doll and another My Little Pony.

 This happened to be the day after Ashton's birthday, so he was wearing his Birthday Boy pin :)

Choo choo!

We started a Christmas tradition last year: riding the Santa train in Port Stanley.  It's a great time.  There are refreshments available before you board the train, then you ride the train for about a half an hour to Union Station where the jolly man himself is waiting to visit with each kid.  Then you get to ride back.  When we went last year, there were hardly any people, and the conductor led us all in caroling.  This year, the conductor felt it necessary to drone on about the history of the railroad, so we chose to serenade our packed car with Eleda's rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  She got a lot of applause!

 This photo is likely to make an appearance on her wedding day.  Priceless.