Christmas!

This is Mommy and Ellie getting ready to go to the Nutcracker with Mom and Mia. Ellie loved watching the ballet so much and couldn't contain her dancing for days after watching the performance! It was fun to have a little Mommy/ Big Girl time. Ellie is growing up so fast, yet sometimes I realized she is still so little!
Here are Ellie and Lucy posing in their new Christmas jammies. The tree this year was a lovely canvas for the girls to continually rearrange and decorate. Mommy didn't have the energy this year to make the tree fully decked out, so the girls took a little more ownership. Oh well, maybe next year when we have a crawling baby I'll have it more under control. Yeah, in my dreams!

We had a great time with our family this year. We went to Adam and Ashley's house (my littlest brother and wife) for Christmas Eve and the girls adored playing with their kitty. It was relaxed and good family time.
Then on Christmas morning we had a yummy breakfast that Dad made. (One of the best I've ever eaten!) My Grandma came over and we had fun watching the kids open their presents and visiting. Then in the late afternoon, we went over to the Evans' Christmas for dinner, reading the Christmas story and opening more presents.

At the beginning of December, we celebrated Santa Lucia Day (which is really on the 13th) with friends who are Swedish. It's the second year in a row that we've really celebrated it with a traditional Swedish dinner, the kids dressed in the traditional costumes while they pass out the Lucia Buns and Pepperkaka cookies to the adults. Bri's sister, Grace, sang the Santa Lucia song in Swedish and did such an amazing job. I hope to post pictues of that but don't have them at the moment.