The Aftermath

We had a really nice and quiet Christmas. Our December felt like a whirlwind, as I'm sure everyone's did, almost like we ran out of space on our calendar to add events. Mostly fun things, but still, lots of things. I was looking forward to the 25th for a lot of reasons, including the fact that almost nothing was on our calendar after that. Erik has been off work since then and it has been really nice.

We started with Lund family Christmas on the 19th. Ellen and Elliot played Santa for Grammy and we had some good cousin time, good food and good laughs (and just a few tears, par for the course with several small children).

Expert gift-deliverer

Incredibly blurry, but accurately reflects the INCREDIBLE EXCITEMENT at receiving 10 princess dolls from Grammy and Papa. One of the few times I really regret not video recording.

I have a picture of Ellen with this stocking every year ...

Her first one looked much like this!

Ellen was able to make use of her cookie decorating supplies once more to make (quite a few) cookies for Santa and his reindeer (they got the plain ones).

 

Then this year I forced some new family traditions on my family and "nicely asked" that everyone come to our house for Christmas morning / lunch instead of us packing up and traveling around. My aunt, uncle and cousins took the opportunity to have their own family gathering and, while we missed them, it was a nice quiet Christmas. 

We bid adieu to Nicholas the Elf on the Shelf with quite a few tears on Ellen's part. She was super tired and actually went straight to bed, allowing us to nap a baby, prep for Christmas meal(s), make room for Santa, feed a baby and go to sleep. Ellen was SO patient Christmas morning, waiting upstairs until Georgia was fed and burped. I doubt we will be so lucky next year.

Again, blurry but EXCITED!

How did Santa know I asked for this book?

Look what you got Georgia! Can I play with it?

Peek-a-boo!

Ellen, please make a nice face.

Uh, Dad? Georgia spit up on me.

Playing Tenzi (fun!). Ellen is quite good at cheating and/or making up her own rules.

Winding down the morning with some Beatrix Potter.

We wrapped up Christmas day with the traditional Lund family dinner of fondue. I don't have any pictures because, well, there were 8 adults and 3 small children and hot oil on the stove. Again, a smaller group than normal and we actually all sat at the same table for once, which was nice. The meal (and guests) were great. 


As usual, Ellen was gifted TOO MANY wonderful things. The most popular Santa gifts were a pack of bubblegum in her note from Nicholas the Elf and Georgia's Baby Einstein musical toy. Before Christmas I suggested Ellen send Santa a letter with her wish list. I explained that Santa would not bring everything on the list, but would take her requests into account. Her only wish was for McKenna the American Girl Doll, which I told her Santa would not be bringing. Cue tears. (She did get the books and was pleased). I suggested she ask for a playhouse and she said those "were for babies", but has played in it quite a bit. Christmas morning she moved all of her gifts into the playhouse and was playing quietly while we were busy in the kitchen. I heard her say "I am so lucky" and, while she was probably acting out some scene with her imaginary friends in the house, I will pretend she actually felt that way. Really, we all do.

**And, had to add that tonight at dinner Ellen stopped, mid-bite, to say "Mom! I'm sorry I didn't write you a thank you note for Christmas.". Oh, Ellen - that's ok. What did you want to write the note for? "For Georgia. To thank you for her." Say it with me .... AWWWWW.