Christmas is here... YAY!!!

Ellie and I all dressed up and ready for Christmas Eve mass.
Ellie on the way home from Christmas Eve mass... This definitely explains why she was so antsy during mass!
After church Ellie scatters her "Reindeer Food" (aka: oatmeal and glitter... food and sparkle to see from the sky) for Santa's reindeer.
And some over here....
And don't forget this side of the yard too!
Ellie's homemade cookies, gingerbread and pb chip/ chocolate chip, and a box of milk for Santa.
Now we just need to put jammas on, brush our teeth, and snuggle into bed!
"See Santa, I am ready!!"
Looks like Santa came!
Oh my!!! We found this picture on my camera, I left it in the family room on Christmas Eve night. One of Santa's elves must have taken this picture... It is Santa taking one of Ellie's cookies! He was here... Ellie is one lucky girl!
Christmas morning.

Around 7 am Ellie jumped into my bed to cuddle and we were talking about Christmas...
MB: "Do you think Santa came last night?"
Ellie: "No, I didn't hear him. He hasn't come yet."
MB: "Maybe you should go and check under the tree."
Ellie: "No. I don't want to run into him. You go check."
MB: "Come on Ell, you should go check."
Ellie: "No, you go. And here, you take Bird, he will keep you safe."
So I get up and put my slippers on and Bird and I get ready to go out the door.
Ellie: "Wait. I will come too, Bird will keep us both safe."
And we were off to the Christmas tree and to wake everyone up!
Merry Christmas Morning!!
Ellie and her new 'primping' accessories. What a diva!
Debating what to open now...
Ellie and her new Ariel stature for her clubhouse.
Someone is VERY excited about her talking twins!
Ellie playing with all of her dolls... Barbies, the Strawberry Shortcake gang, and the twins (did I mention that they talk to each other?).
While I open one of her toys, the Princess Presto wand I think, Ellie fixes my hair. I am the luckiest mommy in the whole world!!
Schatzie taking it all in... its a tough job but some dog has gotta do it!
Ellie even got Uncle Sean and Aunt Margie playing with her dolls!
Posing in her new Ariel dress.
Breakfast time for Ellie and the twins!
On our way to a fantastic Italian Christmas dinner at Aunt Angela and Uncle Jay's house. Despite the rain, everyone was all smiles this Christmas day!
Ellie and Brownie.

Funny story...
You see Brownie is Julie's dog and he is so friendly and sweet. He has also not been neutered. I only mention that because after dinner Ellie wanted to know what those pink things were by his butt. Very kindly my cousin Julie, have I mentioned that she is a pediatrician, dodged the question and handed it over to me. (Thanks Jules, I won't forget this one!) After a pregnant pause and curious looks as to how I was going to answer this one (I was wondering too) I started on how it was part of Brownie's penis and that is what makes him a boy. I really didn't want to have to introduce the "s"(crotum) on Christmas day. And in contrast, a vagina is what makes a girl, a girl. After a few awkward moments of explaining Brownies 'pair' to Ellie, she got the answer to her question and we had a couple of chuckles!
Margie, Papoo, Ellie, MB, Sean, and Meme at Christmas dinner.
Sunday Ellie and I headed to Aquarium. First stop... pizza for lunch and some orange soda. She says that the bubbles make her 'crazy' but I say that is from the sugar!
Speaking of bubbles... Ellie is listening to the bubble tubes.
Riding up the people mover.
Checking out the colorful sea anemones,
the sea horses,
and the coral reef.
Ellie up in the rainforest. We even saw 2 orange monkeys and a green parrot!
Ellie at the dolphin show.
One of the many AWESOME dolphin tricks.
Checking out the newest exhibit... The Invasion of the Jellies.
It was super cool!!!
Worn out and waiting for her noodles at lunch.
Hiding out with Bird and Bah-bah.
So, what do you do when you have a pre-schooler at a restaurant with no crayons?
Answer: Let her play with your camera!
Bird
The Thinking Bah-bah.
Happy... her noodles finally got here!

Big Snow!!

It started on Friday night...
At noon on Saturday we already had 9 inches on the back patio.
At 2:30 there was already 15.5" with no sign of it stopping!
So Ellie and I stayed inside and baked some cookies...
... and decorated the tree.

On our first attempt to go outside and play we both got all dressed and as I am zipping up my coat Ell starts taking off her gloves. She wants to start over. We take off her coat then put the mittens back on and followed by her coat (again). Off to play...
As we are about to step across the threshold she turns and looks at me and says, "Mommy, I have to go potty." Of course! Off to the bathroom...
I take off my coat and gloves, then Ellie's coat, gloves, hat, and scarf. Unzip her snow pants. Pull down her sweat pants then panties. Then put Ellie on the potty. Wipe. Off the potty, up with the panties...
Wait! "My panties are wet!" Of course!! Off to the bedroom. Off with the boots, snow pants, sweat pants, then panties. We put on clean (and dry) ones and we begin to redress when she looks at me and says, "I don't think I want to go outside now. We'll play later." Hmpf!
We finally went outside around 6pm. Schatzie found a path next to the car port to go exploring.
Ellie made it up to the backyard... And yes, she is standing up!
Shatzie running along her "potty path". Ellie is behind her trying to help with the shoveling.
Making snow angels.
Posing next to the yardstick... it says 15.5" but it wasn't all the way to the ground.
She insisted on taking her mittens off. We didn't last much longer after that happened!
A pretty snow day smile.
Ellie and I in the wintry fluff.
The back patio around 8pm... It is still snowing!
Bundled up and getting warm before dinner.

Update: When we woke up this morning it had finally stopped snowing, the reports say 18" total, and at now to start digging out of this mess!!