MERRY CHRISTMAS

We began our celebration last night by having dinner and singing happy birthday to Jesus.

Then we put on Christmas music and opened our family gifts.








This morning we all assembled at the Crocker residence to see if Santa had visited. Sure enough Santa had made a visit.







We will have dinner tonight and watch a movie and after that we will all wonder how it was all over so fast after all of the planning and anticipation!

Celebrating with Friends

Elise, my Mom and I went over to Mary's house for a little Christmas visit today. Eric is home from college for the Christmas break so we got to see him also. We had a great visit complete with gifts and some yummy treats. We had a great time (thanks Mary).

THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS!

I love Christmas! I especially love it now that we have a four year old in the family. Elise is so into all of the magic. She is into the Elves that get into mischief every night in her house and totally relying on Santa to arrive in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Her little eyes are as big as saucers when she talks about it all. Every time I see her she tells me with great enthusiasm what the Elves have gotten into the night before! She is not so focused on the gifts as she is all of the wonder of the season.

I am on vacation next week so Melanie is taking her out of school so Greg and I can keep her with us. I know she is very excited and hyper so I have planned a lot of structured activities for her. She and I always do an art project and some cooking together so I have stocked up on lots of materials for that. I also got her a new movie (Horton Hears A Who).

My Mom arrives tomorrow and she and Elise are excited to see one another. My Mom is great with little ones so they should have fun.I just hope she has enough energy to keep up with Elise!

Greg and I wish all of our family and friends a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2009.

IT"S A BARBIE TREE!

My Mom has collected Barbie's for a long time now and when she found out that Elise loves Barbie she sent her all of the ornaments that she has collected. Elise was thrilled. I got a little tree and put lights on it and let Elise decorate it with all of the Barbie's.
Elise loves her tree and she takes the Barbie's off and on and plays with them. It is soooo cute.
This will definately be an annual thing as long as she enjoys it.
Of course I just happened to have the camera close by!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to decorate for every season/holiday. It was a real challenge this year because when we moved I got rid of tons of my stuff in the interest of downsizing. I now have more space for decorating in spite of the smaller house since I designed this house with decorating in mind! So I found myself with more potential decorating space and fewer items. I have completed putting out what I have and it is clear to me that I will be forced to purchase more (sorry Greg).
Here is some of what I have done: