newatmarriage: Christmas '08

elenora's second Christmas has come and gone. she is such a joy to be around and truly made this Christmas something special.

Christmas Eve we took elenora into boston to the service at Park Street Church. we sat with momby and j. and h. ella very adorably looked at the cross on momby's choir robe and said "T"! i love the Christmas Eve service because there are lots of children in the sanctuary and you can walk up and down the side aisle with a 15-month-old (bringing smiles to everyone's faces as you pass them by).

here are some photos of ella's Christmas dress. we had to wake her up from her afternoon nap in order to dress her in time for the service...which you can see she wasn't too thrilled about. but the dress was adorable. such a good color on her.
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the only thing sad about Christmas Eve was that j.'s parents' tire blew on their way into boston and AAA never showed up to help them after the service. j. finally went out to get them at 9:30 pm and they all arrived home at midnight. our traditionally late dinner turned into an incredibly late dinner. however, when we all finally did gather around the table it was a very enjoyable meal.

Christmas morning we all slept in until 9 am. then we had eggs and mimosas and coffee and opened our presents. j. read ella the book he wrote for her while she ate her breakfast. she really enjoyed it, and has read it multiple times since. all day we asked her "who's birthday is on Christmas?" and she responded "Jesus."

here ella is on Christmas morning with the tree. she likes to name all of the ornaments. in the second photo she is saying "mouse" while pointing to a little mouse ornament given to me by mrs. ruth years ago.
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we gave elenora a baby named "amy" who she quickly became a good mother to by offering the baby a bottle. ella calls her "may-me."
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Christmas afternoon we went to momby's for presents, dinner, and dessert. elenora received all her presents before dinner (since bedtime came soon afterwards). she was generously given some amazing toys that we are excited to play with. momby gave her a beautiful little stroller for her babies. ella gave baby amy a spin around the house several times, stopping every few feet to pat amy's head with a "good baby" gesture.
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j. and h. gave ella a gorgeous magnetic chalk/dry erase board (to go with the alphabet magnets i gave her earlier in the day). elenora is loving this gift so much already. she says "chalk," and she likes to draw on the chalk board as well as putting her magnets on and off the board. she has already learned that "E" and "e" are called the same thing (yes, she says "e" when she sees them...as well as saying "B" and "T" and "D" and "O" and "K" when she sees them).
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