Christmas Morning 2011

Christmas Eve 2011

We had a nice quiet day with Christmas movies and getting ready to pack tomorrow. We went to 4pm mass - the most crowded mass I've ever seen! And came home to manticotti for dinner. We've been tracking Santa on Norad all night. She's asleep now and I'm sure visions of sugarplums dance in her head ....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ..

Today Ellie and I had so much fun together .. just the girls. Our main objective was to get the Christmas cookies made and decorated. Whew! Then we made manicotti shells to use for Christmas Eve dinner (tomorrow!) .. the we ran a couple errands and decided we'd like to do our toes too! What a bright red color she chose!

Clubhouse Christmas Concert

Ellie in front of the tree at the Concert

Ellie and her school-ager room teacher, Alex

The singers! Ellie was loudest!!
Ellie had a concert tonight for all her Clubhouse Child Care friends. Each class sang different songs .. Ellie's school-agers room sang, "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas." They were great!

Nutella Sea Salt Fudge

My favorite food blogger, Ree Drummond featured this recipe over the weekend and I knew I had to try it. Helps when you have all the ingredients needed....

It's delicious!

Here's a link to the RECIPE!

Polar Express Day at School

Today Ellie is ready for Polar Express Day! Miss Dillow has asked all the students to wear their pajamas as they will be 'boarding the Polar Express'! After some fun activities, the group will be watching the movie at school! Ellie was very excited to know all her friends will be in their pjs too. The day sounds filled with fun and hot chocolate!

She's ready to go!

Daddy & Daughter Shopping Day

This morning Ellie was up very early .. she knew today was shopping with Bill day. She also wanted to Skype Grammy very early to wish her a Happy Birthday!

As I dove into studying for my insurance exam on Monday morning, Bill and Ellie were off to shop for Christmas. They rode the train at the mall, shopped and shopped, and finally stopped for lunch. They were both exhausted when they returned!

Christmas Concert

Grove Elementary School had their Christmas concert last night for K, 1st, and 2nd grades. They run these things like a well-oiled machine! Ellie had to report at 6:15pm to line up backstage for a 6:30pm concert. All four Kindergarten classes performed together .. that's just over 100 kids! The First grade had already performed at 5:30pm, and the Second graders were due at 7:30pm. 6:30 on stage, exit stage left 6:50pm for pick up in the cafeteria by 7pm and watch the Second graders enter the building! What a wonderful production!

They sang 6 songs .. and of course I cried at how awesome and cute they were!

Jolly Old St. Nicholas - by Benjamin Hanby
May There Always Be Sunshine - Russian Folk Song by Jim Gill
Jingle Bells - by James Pierpont
Hanukkah Is Here - by Suzanne Clayton
If It Doesn't Snow on Christmas - by Milton Pascal/Gerald Marks
Must Be Santa - by Hal Moore & Bill Fredricks

A Visit with Santa

Girls Scouts