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| Here she is with her hands down just staring into space - very sleepy eyed |
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| This was about 30 minutes later while at the computer playing her game. She still had her jacket on. Erik went into check on her and she was sound asleep with her head on the desk. |
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| Poor girl was pooped - she had a long exciting weekend with less sleep then she usually gets. |
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| Let's start off with the coolest happening of the day - it snowed. So, it may not be much but I considered it a white Christmas and was pretty excited about it. We even got more of it the next day. |
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| So basically, Santa came, Elaina got all sorts of cool stuff including this Barbie Jeep and the pillow pet in her lap. Her face we priceless when she came downstairs to see all her stuff. She was as solemn as she could be - no smile, no expression, no words. She didn't want to touch any of it. It was like she was in disbelief that it was all happening. Then she said "Did he eat my cookies?" :) She eventually warmed up and started touching/playing with all of it. |
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| Jumping on her new trampoline.... This has been a huge hit |
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| With her new umbrella - she is really into this too |
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| A shot in the jeep outside for the inaugural run. Let's just say she needs some practice steering. Her main issue with steering is that she doesn't do it. I've got some pretty funny video of her driving it that maybe I'll share later. |
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| Then there were presents and more presents - she got lots of paint/drawing stuff for the bath which is pretty fun, a stamp set which she LOVES A LOT, and other toys/books/etc.... |
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| My mom stopped by Christmas morning to say hello and brought Elaina another gift. It's this quarter collector set that you put the state quarter in the hole where the state is. Elaina thought this was really cool. My mom and Gale got all their grandkids one of these for Christmas along with all 52 quarters. They have been gathering quarters for a while. She said they have been just going to various banks trading in dollars upon dollars in quarters. Now that's determination. I wonder what those bank tellers thought of them :) |
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| Then it was off to Erik's mom and dad's for Christmas with them. Elaina got more gifts, of course. We ate a delicious meal and enjoyed time with them. |
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| I decided while I was there that I hardly ever post pics of Erik's parents/siblings/nieces/nephews on our blog (or at least not as much as my family) so I thought I'd get some pics of them all and do some intro for those of you who don't know the Stringfellow bunch (the rest of them). This is his mom and dad, aka - Mamaw and Papaw |
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| Erik's sister Melanie and her husband, Kevin |
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| Erik's sister Melinda and her daughter, Brittany (left) |
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| Erik's brother, Brett, and his wife, Lisa, and kids Zach and McKayla |
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| You know this crew.... |
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| Melanie with her youngest daughter, Cassie |
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| Melanie's oldest daughter Jessica with her husband, Brandon, and daughter, Kelsey |
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| Cassie with her daughter, Liana |
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| And finally, Kevin's children - Aaron and Ryan |
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| We started off the day with a cake decorating session - a birthday cake for Jesus. This is a tradition we started last year but this year was the first year she was totally into it. It was fun stuff. |
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| The finished product - I pretty much let her have her way with the cake. I just helped with the words. Not the most beautiful cake but fun, nonetheless. |
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| Then, it was off to Mass with my mom (as is our usual Christmas Eve custom). Then we headed home for dinner, fun, and presents. We had a cookie decorating contest this year. This is Elaina preparing to make her cookie. |
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| My sister Kate, and her daughter, Alexandra decorating their cookies |
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| Nephew, Quentin, decorating his |
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| Sister, Nell, decorating hers |
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| Nell's hubby, Dave, decorating his |
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| Mom, Carl, and Gale decorating theirs - this is a serious crew right here. Our dear friends Carl and Sabrina joined us again this year. They are big cake decorators so they provided the professional cookie decorating tools. It was very cool. |
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| Sabrina was the judge but she took a few minutes to decorate her own cookie |
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| Here are the Stringfellow cookies - Elaina (reindeer), Erin (weird eyeball looking cookie), Erik (ornament) |
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| The Gates cookies, Kate (Santa), Alexandra (love cookie), Quentin (icing piled cookie - he was going for tallest cookie) |
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| The Smith's cookie - Dave ("S" cookie??? No idea), Nell (Christmas tree cookie) |
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| Sabrina (snowman), Carl (Santa - he put 2 cookies together. GENIUS), Gale (wreath), mom (candle) The winners in the following categories: Elaina - best little kids cookie Alexandra - best big kid cookie Nell - best adult cookie Mom/Carl/Gale: Best Group of cookies |
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| Then it was present opening time.... Elaina got a cheerleader outfit from her Granny |
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| We did stocking stuffers only with everyone this year - this is Elaina with her bath soap stuff that you paint on. |
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| Dave and Nell played the part of the reindeer |
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| A pose with Erik and I |
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| Then it was home to get ready for bed and put out cookies and milk for Santa... Elaina was super excited about doing this. It was fun for Erik and I too ;) |
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| Decorating action |
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| The guys got in on the action.... |
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| Here is Elaina putting green gel on hers |
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| Finished products..... they turned out really well |
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| Here are the kids with the houses - Isaac, Olivia, and Elaina |
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| We decorated our tree the weekend of Thanksgiving. Elaina helped... she put all the ornaments within a 1/2 foot of each other on the bottom. Not sure you can tell from this shot but here is a bunch at the bottom right on top of one another. Also, she did very well. I harped on her over and over to be sure not to drop an ornament. Guess who dropped and broke two - ME!! Figures. |
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| We also got a new computer as a gift to each other. We needed a new one desperately. Our current one was 7 years old which is about 102 in computer years. It was long overdue. It is a Touchsmart touch screen so Elaina LOVES the thing. She already can work it better then Erik and I can. |
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| Elaina and I do a lot of dancing in the living room to various songs. Here we are dancing to Christmas music in the living room. Didn't know Erik was taking shots but glad he did - memorable stuff |
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| This past Sunday night/Monday morning, we got about 2 inches of snow. So, we had a SNOW DAY! Talk about feeling like Christmas. We all 3 stayed home for the day. Erik's work closed, Elaina's school closed, and I took the opportunity burn some vacation and spent the day at home with them. It was super fun. Erik went outside to take pictures of our yard decorations in the snow. |
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| When you are at home all day, you do silly things - Here Elaina is with her jammies on and my shoes. |
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| Elaina got the camera and took some shots with it |
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| Then it was outside to play in the snow. It was pretty cold so Elaina did not make it very long. But, it was fun while it lasted. |
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| Making snow balls - sort of. Not good packing snow but it was worth a shot anyways |
