Christmas Eve to Day

Long post.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ella went to church on Christmas Eve with her Grandma and Papa. She got all dolled up in her dress and felt like a princess. Ella is a girl in every single way. When she puts on dresses she starts to squint her eyes, tilt her head, throw her hands up slowly and make a deep sigh....That's her "feeling pretty" move. It will never get old to me. We took a few pictures by the Christmas tree before sending her off to church. Keith and I had some alone time and then met them later for Christmas with his Dad, Stepmom and sisters.

(Aw crappers...I cut this off and mistakenly delete the original)



We were told that night that Ella and her cousin Jack were the cutest things. They walked around holding hands in their dress and suit and looked like an old married couple skipping away. Its hard to get Jack to pose for me, but I love them holding hands in this picture.


They have a baby grand piano at their house and every time we go over there Ella jumps on it and starts to play. She has music in her blood I swear.



On Christmas morning, we had Ella went potty and brushed her teeth before we let her go downstairs to see if Santa came. That gave Keith enough time to go to the bathroom himself and get the video camera. The first thing she did was check to see if the cookies and milk were gone. Check. Then she ran over to the stockings. She opened all of her gifts in the stocking and then opened Keith's, Lulu's and mine. Off to the Christmas tree. A few of the presents she got were a Snow White doll, a new camera (from our friends, which she loves) and a guitar.




Keith's mom came over in the morning. She knit an adorable hat and scarf for Ella. Then it was off for an afternoon nap for Ella and Daddy. Keith did not like waking up to the sound of my shutter going off. Oops. :o)


After the nap, my parents came over. The plan was they were going to bring a turkey over and we would have turkey sandwiches after Ella opened her gifts from them. As we are sitting downstairs, we hear a big crash upstairs. My mom says, "I hope that wasn't my turkey!" Sure as sh*t, the dog had eaten half of the turkey off the counter and finally pawed it down to the floor. O-M-G!! We were in shock. Lulu is the most well behaved and mannered dog I know. She was never a garbage picker as a puppy and has NEVER tried to grab anything off the counter. Its not like the turkey was sitting on the table or some place lower. It was on the counter and she would have had to have thrown her arthritic paws up on the counter and pull it to the floor. We were all stunned. I still cant believe she did it.

Needless to say, Keith was livid and she sat in her kennel for the next few hours. Keith ended up cooking a wonderful dinner for us. My mom hit it on the nail though....She said that for all the love and companionship Lulu has given us over the years, the least we could do is give her a turkey dinner! I agreed and wasn't so upset after that.



I have to add...for humors sake, that later that night after Ella went to bed, Keith and I were downstairs and he told me that Lulu would be spending the night locked in her kennel. He said he knew the turkey would make her want to poop and he was not going to clean it up off the carpets or something the next morning. Just as he said that, Lulu walked by us, started to go upstairs and let out the biggest fart ever. I swear it was the best timing in history. We laughed so hard.

So, one of Ella's favorite gifts was from Mama and Daddy. We had given her a doctors kit and a flute. The $0.99 flute was the hit of the day. I really need to remember that for next year before I start spending $40-$50 on toys she wouldn't enjoy as much.


All in all, I am thankful we made it through the day. Keith is on vacation now until January 5th and I am SO excited. It will sorta be like a little vacation for me too!