Christmas Day

If I'm being perfectly honest, I've been somewhat dreading Christmas Day since Jared left two weeks ago. I just hated to think about him missing the first Christmas that Eleanor was actually excited about. But, he did, and it's over, and now I can stop dreading it and move on, right? Right.

Eleanor and I are very blessed to have such an amazing extended family to have shared this special holiday with in Jared's absence. They are understanding and loving and funny, which kept my time to feel sorry for myself to a minimum. There were a few tears Christmas morning as Eleanor "ooed" and "awwed" over her gifts and Daddy wasn't there to share in the joy; however, I did make an extended edition director's cut DVD of Christmas morning that is already on its way to Iraq along with about 50 pictures of our Christmas celebrations.

Here are some shots of Christmas morning in apartment 1211:

Santa brought a "panano"

and some Backyardigans discs for the View Master.

He also put a Slinky in her stocking, which was a huge hit!All she really wanted was a candy cane...could have saved a few bucks there. Hindsight...

Mommy's little photographer seeing if she got the shot.

And here she is Photoshopping her photos. Not really. Just playing on her new computer. The look on her face is priceless to me!

I think this girl had a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas pictures

Too bad I'm not sending Christmas cards. Wouldn't it have been fun to get this little cutie in your mailbox?! :)

Pretending to feel Christmasy

So, I'm not really feeling the whole Christmas spirit thing this year. It could have a little something to do with the fact that this is the first Christmas I've spent without Jared in 11 years. (Huge sigh.) However, a certain little person in our family is totally into all things Christmas (seriously, she must know ten Christmas carols already), so I'm trying my best to give her a great holiday season experience.

Today, we decorated our (borrowed) Christmas tree with homemade ornaments.

Eleanor enjoyed making the ornaments very much.

She's very into glitter so I decided we'd decorate some balls for our tree. She got to decide what would go on each ball, which explains why we now have a ball on our tree that says, "Elmo." You gotta love Christmas with a two-year-old. I will say, though, that I must be doing something right because she wanted to make one that said "Jesus" and then told me to 'write Happy Birthday on it now.'

D is for "Daddy." :(

Then, it was time to put them on the tree. She kept saying, 'Mommy, first we put a screw on it, then put it on da tree.' Not sure why she couldn't retain the word "hook."


I tried bribing her with a lollipop to take a picture in front of the tree with me. So, I got about 20 pictures of her licking a lollipop. Nice.

And he's gone...

But he didn't get away without a whole lot of this...

jingle bells

Express yourself

So, people have always told me that whatever I'm thinking is written all over my face. And it's true. It's like I have no control over whatever part of my brain is supposed to tell my face, "Hey, not now. Try to be cool." I'm one of those people everyone else would just love to play poker with since my reaction to a good hand would probably be wide eyes, an open mouth, and perhaps even a gasp and a bounce.

Anyway, I've been working on some of Eleanor's facial expressions lately, and here are a few of my absolute faves...

Scared face

Sad face

Annoyed face

Sweet face

Sneaky face
Surprised face

Contemplative face

And while this next face doesn't show any particular emotion, I would like to note that it is the face that gets this baby girl whatever she wants 90% of the time...

Bowling fun (or not so much)

So, a couple of weeks ago in church, the preacher was telling some story about taking his kids bowling, and (rather than listening to how that was connected to his Biblical message) I got stuck on the idea of taking my own toddler bowling. Well, today we did it. Here's how it all went down...

What she's thinking: Hmm...looks kind of fun. I guess I'll give it a whirl.
What she said: 'Oh, WOW! Balls!'


What she's thinking: Wait. What did those kids just do with those balls?
What she said: 'Where da balls go, Mommy?'

What she's thinking: Oh, crap! Those balls are going to hit the...
What she said: 'Oh NO!! PINS!!!!!'


What she's thinking: Why in the world did you just knock down those pins that were lined up so nicely minding their own business.
What she said: (rather frantically) 'Uh-oh!!! PINS FALL DOWN!!'

What she's thinking: Daddy, please!!! In the name of all that is good and holy, DO NOT roll the ball towards the pins!
What she said: 'Daddy, pwease, no roll it! Put da ball on da table! Put da ball on da table! PWEASE put da ball on da table!' What she's thinking: Oh, good! I think Mommy just said we're leaving. For the love of Pete, who thinks this crazy, chaotic game is any fun anyway?!
What she said: 'Wet's go to da rest-a-want and get some wunch! Wet's GO!'
And there you have it, I think we're officially crossing Professional Bowler off of the list of hopes and dreams we have for our daughter. (Sigh.)