A Family for Ellie-Kate: 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christmas with the Cousins-- 12/27/10

Brodie and Emmy

Chelsea Meagan and Phoebe

Phoebe and Ellie-Kate

Brodie and Ellie-Kate

Christmas with the Cousins-- 12/27/10

Phoebe, Emmy, Ellie-Kate, Brodie, and Chelsea Meagan

Teresa, Mom, Grandma, and Christie

Brodie, Ellie-Kate, Phoebe, Mom, Grandma, Emmy, and Chelsea Meagan

Teresa, Emmy, Brodie, Phoebe, Ellie-Kate, Mom, Christie, and Chelsea Meagan

Happy 35 month birthday, Ellie-Kate-- 12/26/10!!

Brodie and Chelsea Meagan-- 12/27/10

Christie, Grandma, and Teresa--12/26/10

Ellie-Kate and Great-Grandma-- 12/26/10

Phoebe, Brodie, Ellie-Kate, Great-Grandma, Chelsea, and Emmy-- 12/26/10

Ellie-Kate, Emmy, Brodie, Phoebe, and Chelsea Meagan-- 12/26/10

Ellie-Kate celebrated her 35 month birthday by driving six hours to Warsaw for Christmas with the Indiana relatives. Once there, she had a BLAST with running around with her cousins and opening far too many presents!! She LOVES her cousins, Brodie and Phoebe, and they seem to get quite the kick out of her as well :)

Christmas morning-- 12/25/10

Emmy and Ellie-Kate in front of their new Minnie kitchen set

Chelsea Meagan-- age 16

Emmy-- age 10

Ellie-Kate-- age 2

Chelsea (with her Harry Potter movies), Ellie-Kate (with her special Disney charm necklace), and Emmy (with her race car track)-- presents from Santa!!

Emmy, Ellie-Kate, and Chelsea

Coco, Emmy, Ellie-Kate, and Chelsea in front of the tree on Christmas morning

*We had much fun in a very relaxed manner on Christmas! We woke up around 8:45, and the little girls were eager to unwrap presents, but they waited patiently for us to eat some cinnamon rolls and to drag Chelsea out of bed. We chatted with Britti on SKYPE-- she got service in Starbucks before she went to work at Animal Kingdom. We opened presents in a leisurely manner, and the girls loved their Santa presents as well as their other gifts. During the day, we watched the Disney Christmas parade and A Christmas Story, and the girls played with their new presents. We love our relaxed and flexible approach to the day-- we go with the flow and just enjoy the day!! It was a wonderful Christmas celebration, made all the better by knowing that we had a first celebration with Britti earlier in the week and that we got to include Britti on the actual day via SKYPE!

Christmas Eve festivities-- 12/24/10

Emmy, Ellie-Kate, and Daddy leave cookies for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer)!

Chelsea Meagan, Emmy, and Ellie-Kate

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Christmas Eve-- 12/24/10

Chelsea, Emmy, and Ellie-Kate pose for a picture after the church service.

Emmy plays "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" on her cello for the Albany Baptist Church Christmas Eve service.

*We had a fun and relaxing Christmas Eve... Christie did some last minute Christmas shopping in Walmart while Emmy and Chelsea made cookie dough. The girls did crafts, watched Christmas shows, and played with our new Wii. We ate our Casa leftovers for lunch and left for church around 4:15. The church service was simple and special-- we sang songs, listened to the Christmas story, and lit candles throughout the church without incident as we sang carols together. Emmy performed a cello solo, and Christie read "The Christmas Visitor" to the congregation, with the children sitting with her on the front steps of the stage. Back at home, we read a few stories, made cookies, and watched Santa Clause 2. We also checked Norad to find out Santa's location-- he was moving fast, scheduled to visit North America around midnight. We put fresh cookies on the counter and carrots in the yard, and the little girls headed for bed, eager for Santa to visit while they slept. Meanwhile, Christie did a bit of last minute wrapping, and Chelsea scrambled to come up with presents. (She did a good job of creating gifts in our basement at the 11th hour!!) As usual, Christie ended up watching a bit of the service at Saint Peter's Cathedral on tv before heading for bed :)

12/23/10-- Happy 21 month anniversary, Ellie-Kate!!

Chelsea poses before going to her friend group Christmas party.

Emmy displays her completed craft. She came up with the idea and prepared supplies for the rest of the family. Ellie-Kate had a great time with making her version of the craft :) Overall, we had a terrific day-- going to Burger King for fun in the indoor playground, playing on the mall indoor playground, visiting Santa one more time, and doing fun crafts, courtesy of Emmy. In the evening, we got Casa take-out, and we got to watch one of Christie's favorite Christmas movies, "The Ultimate Christmas Present," on one of the Disney channels.