Christmas.

I feel like the above picture is a good way to open any post.  Just after posing for this picture, Rylee dismissed me by scolding that I was interrupting their secret meeting.  I can only imagine!

We attended the Annual Ellsworth Christmas Eve Tamale and White Elephant Party.  It was fabulous, as usual.  My mother-in-law made the most amazing spicy green chili ever.  I am not certain, but I think the secret ingredient is manna from heaven.

I did take pictures during the nativity and gift exchange, but my camera is being a real drama queen lately and not a single one is worth posting.  (p.s., if you like your digital camera, please tell me what kind you have!  I have so many issues with mine!)

When the party was over, Santa rang the doorbell and dropped off our Christmas pajamas.  Olivia was practically shaking with excitement.  But her pjs were accidentally left out of the bag- and, oh my gosh, you should have seen her face-  HER FACE!  It was the saddest thing ever! We realized they must still be in my in-laws’ bedroom (which conveniently has a fireplace), so a hurried story was told about how Santa had left hers especially for her in Nana’s bedroom.  What a relief!  He didn’t forget her!  We ran in and found her wrapped package just next to the fireplace (thanks to a running-ahead-of-us Nana).

Unwrapping her Christmas Tinkerbell pajamas.

She changed quickly, then ran outside, claiming to hear bells and searching the sky frantically for Santa’s sleigh.  She was pretty sure she found it.

Merry Christmas Eve!  Love, Us.

Each of the girls made a note for Santa next to the cookies, milk, and carrots (for the reindeer, of course).

Olivia’s featured a Santa with a hat and a beard, seventy cookies, and little line-shaped carrots.

 

I was nervous about asking the girls to wait clear until after church to open presents, but they all acted like it was a complete non-issue.  Not a single complaint, which is pretty impressive for a 6 year old and two 3 year olds!  Church was pared down from its usual three hours to only one, which was nice.  The highlight for me was when they asked for all the Primary kids to come up for their musical numbers; Olivia (who was sitting with her Aunt Danielle on the opposite end of the bench from me) hopped up and ran to the front to sing in a ward to which we don’t belong, while they sang songs that she didn’t know, in a program that she isn’t old enough for (she missed the Primary deadline by 8 days and had to spend an extra year in Nursery).  It was awesome.  And she didn’t even attempt to move her mouth like she knew the songs, she just maneuvered her way to the front of the pack and stared at everyone in the audience during the musical numbers.

Walking in with Nana.

And finally opening her presents!

She loved reading her name on each of the tags. “O-L-I-V-I-A, hey! It’s mine!”

Pink binoculars from Nana (which were part of a whole super cool adventure kit that Sherri built for each of the girls).

A sassy adventure girl hat.

A gigantic spider from Aunt Corisa.

The only thing she would continuously articulate when asked what she wanted for Christmas was, “I want Legos Duplo!”  I had no idea what they were, apparently she’d seen them on a commercial?   Isaac and I laughed to ourselves as we perused the boy aisles, searching out the perfect Lego set for our little daughter. And can anyone tell me why Legos are so expensive?  Are they fortified with diamonds or something? 

She loves them just as much as she thought she would.

In some other items from her adventure kit.  Plus Cinderella (thanks, Danielle!).

Then we ended the day with a Christmas bath.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve.

I’ve had a hard time Christmas shopping for Olivia this year, and it isn’t totally because I’m poor, either.  (DECEMBER IS SO EXPENSIVE.)

It’s because, as I mentally look around at all her things, I realize, she doesn’t really NEED anything. 

Truly, it all feels a little excessive for the nearly 4 year old who couldn’t even express what she wanted for Christmas without it being planted in her head sometime in November.  And even now, she is kind of confused about the whole what-do-you-want-for-Christmas?? thing.

Christmases with my family were pretty light on the individual gifts because, hello!, there were six kids running around!  As teenagers, I can tell you my family’s unspoken Christmas motto of ‘Less Is More’ wasn’t exactly popular.  (And this isn’t to say that my parents didn’t supply fantastically wonderful presents or that they didn’t try to make sure everyone got things that they wanted- it’s just that our per-kid budget seemed small compared to what some of my friends were getting.)

But these days?  I am so thankful for their purposeful frugality.  It made the Christmas focus shift from Things to People.  And can we all agree that the memories are way better than the forgotten presents?

And let’s talk about how I sound like the lamest parent of all time who no kids would want to have for the Holiday Season.

But seriously.  Is anyone with me, here? 

(She is still going to get plenty of fun things, in case you were worried!)

 

We had the opportunity to go over to Isaac’s Aunt Cindy’s house to decorate sugar cookies and a gingerbread train.  Olivia was pretty excited about it, as evidenced.

September (Isaac’s cousin) was so helpful.  I pretty much milled around and took pictures whilst licking frosting off my fingers, while the older girls kept the younger girls busy.  This whole trip has been an exercise in easy-peasy parenting.  When there isn’t a cousin keeping Olivia entertained, there’s Corisa, or Nana, or Roxie the dog, or exciting toys, or warm weather outside, or new movies.  Today Corisa, Sugar, and Cindy took Olivia shopping with them for a couple hours and brought her back sound asleep.  I think I actively parented for maybe 2 hours today.  It isn’t terrible, is all I’m saying.

Not a boy in sight.

The end result was, like, you know.  It looked like that.  So.

At least I’m not tempted to eat them?

I took this dark, fuzzy picture today because these two standing there reminded me so much of a picture I took two years ago:

Olivia has done some serious growing.  They are almost the same height now. Oh, they are cute.

Don’t be jealous that it was 70 degrees today! Yesss.

Christmas time is here.

I will tell you something: if it’s not my computer’s broken screen causing problems (and now it isn’t, thank you, Isaac), it’s the power cord deciding to spontaneously quit charging.  The old girl is determinedly committing suicide and I can’t seem to keep up with her numerous ailments. 

ANYWAY.  We are in California! 

Here are some pictures!

Don’t judge me because this is my favorite view from the whole 9 hours to California.

We stayed in Vegas and got lucky enough to spend the night in a fancy New York-New York  suite. 

And we ate some decidedly unfancy cheap pizza.

And this is the picture where I come to the realization that she is way too big for me to be holding her that way.  Or to be holding her at all.

It was all really fun until I started to feel like I’d been hit by each of those semi-trucks that we’d passed earlier in the day. Aching head, throat, chills, sore limbs. It was the grossest. 

But at least I had the opportunity to sleep on the softest bed ever to grace to surface of our green and blue earth, and for that I thank you, New York-New York people. 

There were some spectacular winds the rest of the drive.  The dusty fields lining the roads were generous with their loose dirt, gusting gigantic gritty sheets, rocking our car to and fro, and soundly impressing/terrifying Olivia. 

We did make it alive.  And we were awfully happy to see this pretty face when we arrived. (Her dad and sister hadn’t arrived from London yet.)  They named themselves ‘Pinkerbell’ and ‘Purplebell’. 

Please enjoy their amazing dance moves:

And then Rylee arrived and the non-stop cousin parties began in earnest. (This picture was taken in the early morning, which means I hadn’t yet become motivated enough to get Olivia dressed.)

Zesting oranges with Nana.

Watching Elf.  Which is maybe on the tv as I type.  But twice in three days isn’t really excessive because it’s the greatest movie of all time.  And anyway, don’t you think Zooey Deschanel is barely recognizable in it?  The blonde hair really makes her look different.  And are you the type of person who types ‘blond’ or ‘blonde’?  I choose the ‘e’ version because it looks totally naked without it.

Tonight’s spaghetti (in dress ups) was a great big, gigantic, amazing success.

But nothing was better than the simultaneous bath-taking. 

4 days ‘til Christmas!

The First Nole.

Things I love, and cherish, and think are spectacular at this very point in time:
-I'm finally finished with finals!  Hooray!  I should probably weigh myself because I'm pretty sure I just lost about 100 lbs of stress.
- Olivia is obsessed with grapefruit right now, only she can't remember what it's called, so she says, "Can I have that fruit?  The one that is, like, orange on the outside and reddish pink on the inside?"
- I (finally) got my hair done today.  I feel like a brand new woman.  Can I call myself a woman?  Do I qualify?  Maybe yes because I've birthed and potty trained another human?  Do I need a Britney Spears song right now to express my feelings on this matter properly?  (I'm not a girl... not yet a woman!)(Please know that the previous parenthetical statement is comprised of lyrics from a Britney Spears song, not a serious expression of my feelings on the matter at hand.)  Anyway, you're right.  I'm totally a woman these days.
- Vacation in two days!!
- Yes!! Vacation!!  No homework!  And eating way too much!  My favorite things!
- Oh! And my reading hiatus can end, too! I didn't have time to read during the semester, but seeing as I'm free for almost a month: books!  My other favorite!

Things to desperately despise and to be thrown promptly into the fiery pits of Mordor:
- MY COMPUTER!  The screen randomly went black the other day, never to shine its light upon my typing fingers again.  So here I sit, typing on a stubborn, sticky keyboard in my parents' office.  I am wishing for a Christmas miracle for my poor little lappy. Or else I am wishing for a convenient Middle Earth volcano in which to toss it.

Um.  I can't think of anything else.  But I think that's a good sign?

Sassafras.

Sunday morning heat vent sitting. I love when she does things that I did as a kid.

I recently changed her car seat into a booster and by her continued response to it, you'd think it was made of candy and glittering star dust.  She feels terribly grown up about wearing a 'big girl' seat belt.

Setting up Christmas.

She was pretty much obsessed with the tinsel; she even made her own tinsel tree which had a star ornament embedded in its depths.  And I love her other decorations, too.  Especially 'NOLE'.

Photo dump.

 

Sharing (more like stealing) Grandma’s lipstick.

We made this.  I felt like a crafty mom, a little. 

(I recognize this is not really that impressive, but you must consider the previous position of my craftiness bar.  It was low enough for cockroaches to play limbo.)

Then the Indian Princess (as she was only to be called at this point) and I went to Target.  And then Roberts, and then the bank, and all over town, and she never took her headband off even once.

She chose her shoes and each of her accessories and then was like, “Mom, take a picture of me being cold!”

Just climbing at the park in her contraband necklace.  Emily has this fantastic drawer full of plastic beaded necklaces from various random occasions (I am starting to suspect Mardi Gras vacays? Without me?) and Olivia avails herself to them freely. 

Carrying ‘tree seeds’ that she collected and begged to plant.  Planting ended up being an artistic dance routine where she twirled and tossed seeds at random intervals and it was all pretty fantastic.

Of course, my sisters and I had to support Michelle by seeing Breaking Dawn with her since she missed out last time.  What are sisters for, am I right?

Digging in the dirt.  It always makes me want to die a little, but I am trying to be a nice, not-psychopath mom.

Olivia is obsessed with Thomas.  Or, as she calls him, her little Chubber-box. (?)

He likes her, too.

And grandpa.

My friend Mari sent out the most spectacular Christmas card this year which included this mask.

Olivia preferred to use it as a magnifying glass.

I love this so much.

p.s. My finals will be over in 9 days!  I promise better posts are coming!