happy new year!

visit with mimi part 1

merry christmas, Elenora!

violin lesson

cookie making with mamaw

the nutcracker ballet

momby blessed us with tickets to see the nutcracker ballet in boston this afternoon!  what a treat.  we had phenomenal seating and it was so exquisite.  elenora was just wide-eyed the whole time.  her favorite part was when drosselmeier flew through the air.

when we first arrived, they had a giant bear and one of the mice on the balcony to take photos with while a woman played christmas tunes on a piano.  ella was dressed up in a lovely dress from lorien--so fancy for the occasion.

i love her laugh.

Oh Christmas tree

this afternoon we went to pick out our christmas tree.  we've made it a tradition to go to this same place for our trees each year, and they've done an excellent job.

the tree j. and ella picked was the biggest tree we've ever had.  j. even had to snip the top off of the tree to fit it into the tree stand.  it's a gorgeous one.  and this year i decided to put the antique ornaments from my grammy on the tree, after several years of worrying about fragile ornaments around a toddler.

getting ready for school

so j. and i have switched our schedule around a bit so that i drop ella off at school and he picks her up.  i was really having a hard time getting to work early enough to leave by 11:20 am to pick her up from school, and j. was disliking having to get himself and elenora ready in the morning to get to school on time, so this works better for everyone.  now elenora arrives on time (the teachers remarked "elenora, you're here early today!" and i said "that's because it's mommy dropping her off" and they all laughed a knowing laugh) with her hair brushed (j. would give her hair 15 brushes and then send her off no matter how many tangles were left).  god bless j. for being such an amazing daddy, but goodness she looks better now!

anyhow, here we are getting ella dressed and teeth brushed before school.

artwork

here is ella's duck sitting on eggs.  i just love the self-satisfied expression on this duck's face.

here is little bear's friend.  he has a cake with candles because it's his 2nd birthday (notice the 2).

all i want for christmas is... shower curtains???

we went to see santa at the library and elenora came up with the most random requests.

the wave in the middle of her interview with santa was to landry, a 5-year-old neighbor who is just the sweetest girl and who is always happy to see ella.  after elenora finished telling santa what she wanted, she and landry ran off to "look for books about dinosaur footprints."

thank goodness for mamaw-santa, who promptly ordered elenora a dolly tub for little bear and a grey elephant.  this little girl is going to have a very merry christmas!