First Christmas Eve and First Christmas Morning

We were all hoping that Jodee would get out of the hospital in time for Christmas Eve.  They kept promising her that she would, but we prepped the girls just in case she didn't.  They were totally fine postponing Christmas if need be.  They really wanted Jodee there for Christmas and that was what was most important to us all.  Jodee had a foot surgery scheduled late on the 22nd and had things gone according to plan she would have been out by the 24th, but unfortunately they found more infection during the surgery and had to leave the wound open, which meant she needed to stay in the hospital until she had a second surgery after Christmas.  

The girls were awesome and immediately started writing letters to Santa asking him to bring our gifts a couple days after Christmas.  They did not complain once.  It was such a great reminder that people are so much more important than presents.  So proud of my girls.  

We ended up doing our Bethlehem Night on Christmas Eve.  It is the only time of the year I cook Lamb and we all love it.  The girls dressed in their Nativity clothes and we enjoyed a quiet Christmas Eve together with great food.   

 

Since the girls knew we were not doing our normal Christmas morning, they totally slept in on Christmas.  It felt a little odd to not have that same anticipation and to do things out of our normal order, but it was kind of fun too.  We could not totally delay Christmas because we always have Christmas Day plans at Hector's parents house, we just skipped the Christmas morning gift opening stuff.  

Even though Santa did not come on actual Christmas morning, our elf did leave a little gift for the girls to open.  It was huge box of Stroop waffles and the girls were so excited.  We have never had so much time Christmas morning...even though the girls slept in way more than they normally do.  

Love the notes the girls wrote and left for the elf to take to Santa.  

 

Pre-Christmas Activities

Pre-Christmas activities are always fun.  The kids were busy with school and after school activities until the last week before Christmas.  We were excited about having a whole week of no school before Christmas.  We went to Natalia's art show one night, she is really enjoying her middle school art class.  She is also in theater and some of her theater friends did some caroling at the art show.  Estelle even joined in on the fun.  She sang loud and proud.

We did some of our traditional activities like our annual Ugly Sweater party (super fun after missing last year).  The girls had a sleepover at Krystale's house and Hector and I went to his work Christmas party.  It was the most fun work Christmas Party we have been too.  

The girls, Jodee, and I made gingerbread (graham cracker) houses one day.  But then Jodee was not feeling well and her foot infection was getting worse, so I took her to the hospital the second night she was here.  We had no idea she would end up staying for almost two weeks.  Our pre-Christmas looked a little different than planned after that.  We love spending time with Jodee and we were so sad to missing time and activities with her.  It is always more fun enjoying the activities with Jodee; it doesn't feel as much like Christmas without her.  I went to the hospital each day to visit and thankfully Hector had the whole week off work.  He did lots of fun activities with the girls.  

They went to a George Mason girls basketball game, they went Ice Skating (Hector took pictures and videos...the girls skated).  They were very excited about this activity, loved it, but were sore for a couple days after.  They played games, worked on homemade Christmas gifts, made get well notes, signs and decorations for Jodee and just had fun not being in school.  

Hector had a chance to attend a Washington Capitals game.  He got some free fancy box seat tickets through work and had seats right by the rink with access to this awesome food room that the girls were super jealous off.  

We played online games with Jodee while she was in the hospital and did some Christmas cooking.  We all really enjoyed the week, even though it played out differently than we thought it would.  I love the whole month of December.  

I have not been eating sugar, except on major holidays, so I consumed way less sugar in December than I usually do.  It worked out great for because there is so much sugar all month long that normally it gets a little out of hand.  My kids informed me...they would not be joining me on the no sugar thing.  

Estelle made the key lime pie this year and it was awesome!!!  I love cooking with her. 

 

Girl Scout Christmas Fun Run

 

Sienna's girl scout troop hosted a Christmas Fun Run.  The race was a mile and a half and the all the girls wore ugly Christmas sweaters or shirts to run in.  I signed all three girls up.  Most of the runners were Sienna's age.  Estelle was the youngest runner...but she got first place!  She is such a little competitor.  Give her a challenge and she will compete.  She finished in under 14 minutes.  Sienna came in second place and Natalia got 5th.  It was a fun little event.  

They had hot cocoa and cookies after the race.  

Christmas Fun

 The Christmas season got off to a great start with my mom's visit.  We really missed her coming last year.  We had lots of fun with Grandma here.  We went to a couple of plays.  She was excited to see a play at Ford's theater where President Lincoln was shot.  We saw, A Christmas Carol.  We spent another day at the Bible Museum.  I think we were there for 6 hours.  It really is such a great museum.  We enjoyed having the daytime to go and explore while the kids were in school.  Grandma got to watch some basketball games and help us have fun with Christmas activities.  

I did another Christmas Nailed it challenge for the girls.  They are so good at decorating, I had to make it harder for them this year by building cupcakes that were more vertical.  I gave them an hour to recreate two cupcakes that I made and of course they nailed it and did such a great job.  I was super impressed.  Hector came home after they were done and he got to be the judge - he didn't know who made which ones, so he was unbiased.  Natalia won both!!!

We also had fun activities like snowflake making, puzzle doing and church Christmas parties.  

Estelle's Dance Class

Estelle took another dance class this Fall.  She still really loves it.  She had Ms. Sasha for a teacher again, we really like her.  Her class was very small, just three students, but Estelle did not mind.  They were nice girls and all seemed to really enjoy each other.  They practiced each week and then put on a performance the final week.  Estelle apparently has a knack for choreography because she choreographed the student piece at the end of the performance.  It was really great and she got an award for the most creative ballet student.  We love watching her dance.  

We have also learned that Estelle is confident dancer if she has others to dance with her, but she does not like performing solo.  That explains why she never wants to dance at Grandpa Camp for her talent.