Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas at Grandma Patti's

Ready to open presents!

Grandma Patti and Arabella
Bella and her Uncle Mark
Showing off her new Twinkle Toes!
Arabella and her new Cabbage Patch doll named Paige

Christmas with the Franks 2011

Chef Norm making Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner
Wii Bowling Champion! 
Sara and Mike opening presents
It was so fun to watch Arabella open presents this year.  She was so excited about each and every present!
Helping Grandma open her present
AB and her good buddy Strongbow
AB was very helpful making sure everyone 'quickly' opened their presents so it could be her turn again!

Are you sure it's December?

Mother Nature decided to give us a break after last year's brutal winter... so we have been enjoying 50 degree weather for most of December.  Weather nice enough to go on a long bike ride without a coat! 

Santa Express

We took Arabella to Boone to go on the Santa Express (a knock off of the Polar Express... boo on copyright laws.)  She was so excited to go and talked about it for weeks before we actually went.  We checked in and got our tickets, and boarded the train.  Bella was in awe of all the cool things to see around her.  She had never been on a real train before.  While we rode the train to the "North Pole" a woman read a book written for this train ride called "The Santa Express,"  some hot chocolate and cookies were delivered to everyone in their seat, and we all sang Christmas carols (slightly disappointed with the inability of the train staff to remember the words, but we knew the words, so it all worked out!).  Once we got to the "North Pole" Santa boarded the train and came through to say hello to every child!  Arabella was ecstatic because she got to have a jingle bell from Santa's sleigh... just like in The Polar Express!  Overall, it was a great experience for Arabella... she LOVED it!  As an adult, it left a lot to be desired, but I'm glad we took her on it anyway! 

Mommy and Arabella (and a 29 week pregnancy belly... kinda)
Arabella excited about her jingle bell from Santa's sleigh!
Uncle Steve, Arabella, and Grandma Patti

"I believe, so I can hear it ring forever!"

Monday, December 26, 2011

Our Elf on a Shelf

Last year an elf arrived at our house in the mail (thank you Grandma and Grandpa).  We read the book and learned all about the elf (like how NO ONE is allowed to touch the elf for fear of ruining the Christmas magic).  We even got to name our elf... Bella decided K.C. (I was informed recently that her name is spelled K.C. not Casey) was a great name for her elf.  The deal with the Elf on a Shelf is that Santa sends them to keep an eye on children for him.  Every night the elf flies (using Christmas magic of course) back to the North Pole and reports the child's behavior to Santa.  Then each morning when we wake up, the elf is in a new location.  Last year, K.C. just kind of watched from various locations... this year, K.C. was much more mischievous...Every morning (usually between 5:30 and 6... ugh) it was a huge race to find out where K.C. was... Getting up early with her to do this was a huge pain, but it was totally worth it to hear her squeals of delight when K.C. was found.  I hope this is a holiday memory she cherishes always!
On Christmas Eve, Arabella said goodnight to everyone, and then remembered that K.C. would not be there in the morning.  So she went down and told K.C. thank you and that she would miss her.  (so cute!)  K.C. left a note for Arabella on the fireplace mantle next to the empty plate of cookies on Christmas morning.  It said that she would miss Arabella and see her next year... 300ish days to think of new mischievous locations I suppose!
Playing Arabella's Leapster (Tinkerbell game because fairies are tiny like elves)
Riding in the dollhouse car with the Mommy
Eating Bella's Teddy Grahams and drinking milk
Hanging around in the bathroom... Bella thought she liked to look at herself in the mirror!
Hiding in the dragon tree
Sledding down the stairs with our Hallmark friends
Making a snow angel out of sugar... what a mess!  We had quite the experiment and discussion about what the white stuff actually was (love those teaching moments!)
Maybe AB needs to brush her teeth more???  (Hey, it worked... there were no teeth brushing arguments for weeks after this one!)
An early Christmas gift for AB... Froggy's Best Christmas! 
This was my favorite K.C. location because it scared Dave in the morning when he went to get a glass for juice.  HAHAHA!
"Mommy, K.C. was naughty.  She took ALL of your sticky notes and decorated the bathroom with them!  She must not know the rule about your sticky notes!" 
K.C. got into Grandma's yarn and knit herself a little scarf!  How creative!
Digging in the cookie jar!  (Note: Cookie jar is not filled with cookies, but with truffles... later that day, K.C. was fount sitting next to the cookie jar with a truffle wrapper in her lap - Baby brain forgot to take a picture!)
Pretending to be a fighter pilot inside Grandpa's helmet... wearing her scarf of course (it's cold at the North Pole!)
Hanging out on Arabella's bedroom door
       
llin' (literally - it's a chilled wine cellar) in Grandpa's Wine Cellar... guess K.C. likes red wines best!

Away in a Manger

Arabella singing "Away in the Manger."  She's pretending to read it from her little notebook.  I love her cute little voice.  She makes my heart melt every time she sings a song.