Here's to heading into a new year

Today Grandma JoJo and Steve came over for Christmas. I made my meatballs (sausage, beef, onion, rice, garlic) in cabbage, sauerkraut, tomato juice, etc. A New Years Tradition. We had lunch, exchanged gifts, and relaxed.
Ella kept Grandma and Steve on their toes with games of hide and seek, playdoh, board games, a walk, etc.

Every time Grandma JoJo comes, Ella has to get in her truck and hang out and listen to music

After a chilly walk

Tonight, like each year since I got pregnant with Ella, we are taking it easy. We listened to music, played with toys, drew on the easel, and Ella even got treated to popcorn.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day we were still in Botkins. We had Christmas with my mom and Paul, my sister and Kirk and Emma, Adam, and Alex. Of course there was lots of presents and food involved.
Ella was extremely excited about her new dollhouse. We actually put it in her room when we got home and she played in her room all day Monday with it. She has also played with it every morning since and every evening.

And of course tons of other presents. Lots of puzzles and games

And since the family was together, I of course, took tons of pictures

We could not get one of all us girls looking at the camera at once

Sunday night we headed home
Played with some of the new toys

And had our 3rd annual Christmas Chinese Dinner

Monday morning Ella opened gifts at our house

Van, people, and nursery for her new My Loving Family Dollhouse

I had no idea the easel would be this big. Guess it is great for her for many years to come. It has chalk, paper, dry erase board and places to store all her art supplies. She yelled "wow a drawing board" when she saw it

She also had a stocking full of toys and of course socks. Since she asked for "socks and lots of toys" all month, we knew we had to get her some. She was actually very excited about getting new socks

We really had a great Christmas this year. We are so blessed for all that we have. Having a child makes Christmas so much better than I could have ever imagined.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went to my mom's side of the family for their huge gathering.

Of course it was a packed house

Ella helped with the women's ornament exchange

One of my cousins played Santa this year. Santa makes a yearly visit to the Paul family gathering to drop off gifts to the kids.
Ella waiting for her gift from Santa

Ella was so excited to see Santa and ran right up to him. Before he made his appearance, she spent the entire evening running around telling everyone she saw that Santa was going to be coming. Even after he gave her a gift, she continued to want to go up and talk to him

Playing with her new toy from Santa

Ella had a blast playing with all of her cousins. I loved seeing her have so much fun. It really made this one of the best Christmas Eve's ever.

She changed into her Christmas pj's before the night was over

Ella ran, laughed and played the entire night without one single moment of grumpiness (not an exaggeration) even with being up three and half hours past her bedtime. I loved seeing the joy and excitement on her face about her cousins, the party, Santa and it being "almost Christmas". I would say it was a very successful Christmas Eve.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Tom's Birthday. Ella really wanted to find a "polka dot birthday hat" for him but we did not have luck. 

We did go shopping for a gift and Ella picked out a card which we gave to him over lunch.

Tonight, at Tom's request, I picked up Montgomery Inn. As you can see, Ella is cheap to entertain

We had cake and sang Happy Birthday

LOL

She helped Tom blow out the candles

And of course eat the cake

Happy Birthday Tom! Ella and I love you so much!