Christmas #1

Listening to the Christmas story.

Love opening presents...

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Heads....

We started off the Christmas celebrations this year with my grandparents. We had a yummy dinner and then the reading of the Christmas story, followed by presents.

Walkway of Lights

Another one of our traditions this time of year is to go to the Walkway of Lights in Marble Falls. It is always so pretty to walk through. We went to take a picture of the girls in Santa's chair, but a lady there asked if we wanted her to take a family pic. We agreed not knowing how it would turn out. It isn't the most perfect picture, but at least we have one. Isabella was very tired when we got there, so we weren't sure how the evening would turn out, but overall it went pretty good. It is such a fun tradition.

Cookie Time

Every year since I was little, I have always made Christmas cookies. They were the cookies we used to set out for Santa. Eventhough we don't do the whole Santa thing with our girls, I still carry on the tradition of making Christmas cookies. This was the first year that Emberli got to be a part of it. Needless to say, it was interesting. The cookies quickly became only cookies for us and could not be shared with others. (Seeing as she licked the toy knife, her fingers, the bowl, etc.) But, it did make for some precious memories.

Sweet Girls

The girls were being sweet to each other one day and wanted me to take a picture of them together. It turned out pretty cute.

Gingerbread House

One of our traditions at Christmas time is the decorating of a gingerbread house. I do have to say that the houses look better and better each year. I have a lot of fun doing this with Bella. Next year should be really interesting when we let Emberli join in the fun and help decorate it as well.

Christmas Sunday

The girls got dressed up for church on Christmas Sunday. I don't know about anyone else, but it seems like dressing up for Christmas Sunday seems to be less and less on the list of things to do for people. Just looking around this year, it didn't seem like many people cared. That is sad to me. I love dressing them up for church each and every Sunday, but always on Christmas and Easter.

Party Time!

The boy in the green and white shirt gave Bella a Christmas present this year. He has been in her class last year and this year. Tooo cute!

So Bella had her school Christmas party the last day of school before the break. The kids had tons of goodies, played games, and had a book swap. The kids did the book swap by drawing numbers and whatever number you got that is the order you went in to choose your book. Bella was soo disturbed when it was her turn and when I pulled her aside to ask her what was wrong she informed me that she really wanted the book we brought. So, I told her to get her book if she wanted it. She did and she loves her book.

Decorating the Tree

Bella couldn't wait to decorate the tree. It is soo fun watching the girls get so excited for Christmas and everything that comes with it. Hopefully next year Emberli can help decorate. We figured she needed to wait until next year to help decorate.

Christmas Program

Bella had her Christmas program at school on December 17th. It was really cute. All the kiddos did such a great job. Of course, we are partial to our daughter. I love seeing all the kiddos dressed up and looking their prettiest. Emberli did sit pretty still and listened. We were all trying to picture Emberli being up there next year. That should be a site to see...to say the least. Emberli was more excited about the cookies afterwards than anything else. Both the girls looked super cute and were very well behaved. We were proud of both of them.

More Family Pictures

We finally did it. We got family pictures. Now, we took them ourselves with the help of my parents. But, we finally did it. It has taken a long time for us to get a good family picture. I have tried and tried since Emberli has been born to find someone who would take the pictures, but everyone is always too busy. So, here it is. Emberli didn't smile in some, but she did look at the camera, which is progress. I am satisfied.