Christmas Eve Service

Tonight we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. Our choir was actually doing the program. Brent was our narrator and somehow I ended up directing the choir this time. It was quite an experience, but I thought it went really well. Gracie was a great babysitter while the program was going on. Ella sat on her lap in the pews and she fell asleep on her at some point. Gracie looked so pretty sitting by the poinsettias and candles!

A Snowy Christmas Break

We let the girls go out today for a little fun in the snow. Gracie has been croupy this week, but it seemed cruel to not let her play in the snow at all! Ella still isn't too sure about getting in the snow and really playing, but she didn't mind walking in it too much. Gracie is our little snow explorer. She can play in the snow forever and be content, although she enjoys it more if someone is with her.

Ella's Christmas Dress

I already took a picture of Gracie in her Christmas dress (at her Christmas concert) so I thought Ella deserved a post with her Christmas dress also. She was totally thrilled to finally be wearing this beautiful dress. Nana got it for her a while back, and she has been waiting to get the green light from Mommy to wear it!

Can you say "mischievous?!"

Too Tired!

After Ella's bath tonight, she crashed hard. We were sitting on the couch reading our bedtime stories, and I looked over and found her fast asleep. I love watching my kids sleep. They are so peaceful and look like little angels. Now if she would only sleep all night....

Frosty 5K

I headed to Moberly tonight to run in the Frosty 5K. It is held at Rothwell Park and is a night time race. You run through the park which is only lit by the Christmas displays that are throughout the park. It was very pretty, but also a different feeling to run in such a dark atmosphere. I had encouraged my cousin Dawn to run the race with me, and she did, so that was fun also. The biggest shock of the evening came when they announced the winners. I was super shocked to learn that I was 3rd in my age division. I finished with a time of 27:41. They gave us Christmas ornaments that said Frosty 5K, so I can remember my accomplishment by hanging it on my tree each year.

Atlanta C-3 Christmas Concert

Tonight we headed to school for Gracie's Christmas program. When I took her to the classroom, I had the kids who were already there take a group photo. (Yes, Gracie is still taller than the other girls. The front row is on their knees though, so she's not really a giant!)

Gracie by her classroom Christmas tree. I'm surprised she was smiling since she was very upset that she had to wear tights with her dress. She DESPISES tights. That's actually putting it mildly. It's a fight to get her out the door if she has to wear them.
(Sigh) In fact, the last time she spent the night with my parents I sent tights to go with her dress for church the next day and my mom said, "Please do not ever send her an outfit that requires tights again." I think it ruined the whole church experience just because she was so upset.

I'm throwing this in there for those of you who have heard of Eli. Behold....Eli (hugging Gracie's teacher's daughter.)

This is the Kindergarten, First and Second grade classes together for one song.

Gracie was pretty "into' this song. They did a really good job and no one puked during the performance this year. They waited until after they were done singing to puke! True story! That's two years in a row that someone has gotten sick at the Christmas concert.

Meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus

Tonight was our annual Parents As Teachers Christmas event. They always invite Santa and Mrs. Claus and let the kids tell them what they want for Christmas and take pictures. As usual, Ella was timid at first, so I took Gracie's picture first to show her it was okay!

At this point Ella was giving Santa the "evil eye!" Naughty, naughty Ella!

This is as good as it got, but Santa still gave Ella a Dora book as she left.

After meeting Santa we got to sit down and ice a sugar cookie and then decorate it however we wanted.

There were lots of other activities, but since I was flying solo tonight I had to put the camera away and just roam around with the girls. It was a fun night!