Santa Visit

Santa visited the Community Building this morning. Ella concluded that he was another fake Santa, but she doesn't seem to know who he was. Emilia sat with Ella to visit with Santa, but she didn't want to sit by herself. No surprise there. Once she discovered Santa's bowl of candy canes, she was willing to get close, though.


We've had a little trouble with Ella's Christmas wish list. The first time she saw Santa in Hays, she asked for a Nintendo DS, so Santa's elves got right on that. Last week, she brought home a letter to Santa she had written in school asking for a Wii and a TV in her room. This kind of annoyed me because I had tried to talk her into a Wii earlier (because I want one), and she'd turned her nose up at the idea. And the elves had already taken care of the DS. (Santa's elves like Amazon.) So we had a talk about how Santa won't bring presents that parents don't approve of (because we're just not TV in the bedroom people). Then the other night, she started talking asking for a Loving Family Grand Dollhouse, so we had a talk about how Santa's elves might have already started processing her first request. It must have worked because she told her friend Addison that you only have one chance with Santa. He gets you the first thing you ask for, and you can't change your mind. And she asked Santa for the Nintendo DS today. (Except today she said DSi...Santa's elves are hoping she doesn't really know the difference between DS and DSi. The elves sure don't, except that the DS is about $40 cheaper. And the DS is already wrapped.)

If you want to see more pictures from the Santa visit, I have a bunch posted on Facebook.

Another hat

Here's Emilia in Ron Smith's work hat. She didn't want to take this hat off, either.

Emilia's Hat

When I bought this hat in Guymon at the craft fair, I didn't think Emilia would really wear it. It matches her coat perfectly, and it was so stinkin' cute I just had to have it, but I really figured Emilia would refuse to wear it. How wrong I was. She loves this hat. She refuses to take this hat off. She brings me this hat and wants me to put it on her if she's not wearing it. She even wants to sleep with it sometimes. That's our stylin' baby.

Dancing Baby

Let me apologize for the quality of this video--I have absolutely no idea how to edit videos, so it's sideways, and there's several seconds of Emilia just standing there. And there's some crazy camera work going on. But if you bear with me and watch, you can see Emilia's fabulous dance moves. And Ryan's if you watch carefully. Enjoy!

Winter Weather

Well, we never made it to Ella's second performance of the Nutcracker. It started getting icy, and Ella was tired, so we just stayed home. There were several accidents in the area, so I think we made the right decision.

Ava came over last night, and she and Ella played in the snow. There wasn't a lot of snow, but they got bundled up in snow suits and (45 minutes later), they headed outside. First they jumped on the trampoline. Emilia and I watched out the window for a little while, but it made Emilia mad (she wishes she were one of the big girls) and they way they were sliding around scared the pants off of me, so we just pretended we didn't know what they were doing. Ignorance is bliss, right? They played in the deeper snow in the ally until our neighbor's dog scared them. Then they went Christmas caroling around the neighborhood, carrying camping lanterns to light the way. Here they are warming up afterward with hot vanilla soymilk and chili.


And here's a picture of ornery Emilia enjoying her supper.

The Nutcracker

Ella's first performance of The Nutcracker was last night. She was super nervous (like complete and total melt-down nervous), but she did a great job. She and Dettra Crawford's daughter Kynna were the little enforcers--they kept shushing the other girls. When their scene was over, the line leader who was supposed to lead them off stage just didn't go, and so the whole group stayed on stage. So Mrs. G cued them again, and they all danced to the other side of the stage, but still didn't leave. So then the girl playing Clara got up and tried to usher them out, which still didn't work. Finally, Clara got them convinced it was time to leave, and they all left. Finally. It was pretty cute.

Ashton and Preston came over with Grandma and Grandpa, and they did a good job sitting still and watching the show. Preston made a list of the dancers he thought were cute. He also teased Ella by calling her "Curly," which makes her mad, but she secretly likes.

I was really proud of Ella. She did a good job dancing, and she is by far one of the best behaved little girls. Some of those girls are wild!

We have another performance this afternoon. I hope Ella has all the jitters worked out!

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