the celebration of christmas (the long, extended version)

so we had a three-day long christmas this year.  it was phenomenal!!  on christmas eve eve, we were joined by gigi, poppie, uncle norm, auntie elaine, alan, lauren, jeanne, marc and william!

alan and lauren are always so incredibly thoughtful with ella and max and they baked sugar cookies then made frosting in a bunch of different colors to decorate with the kids.  ella and max had a blast - thank you!!

welcome to tucson, william!!

ready for our family christmas dinner!

on christmas eve, we went over to my parents' house for brunch.

and look who made a surprise visit!!!!!

papa elf himself made a last-minute home visit to els, max and william to make sure they had their christmas orders and get in his cookie order for that evening.  so awesome!!

we said good-bye to the semrau clan and headed to mass, then home to a delicious dinner of soup and salad.

getting santa's cookie plate ready!

merry christmas!!  and merry FIRST christmas to william - how special to celebrate it with you.

definitely missed auntie elaine and her picture-taking on christmas day!

we spent a very relaxing day opening presents.  and the adults playing with max's presents - he got some cool stuff!!  uncle marc taught him to play chess, he got a remote control BB-8 and all of us took turns with his perplexus:

on tuesday morning we said good-bye to the hansens and enjoyed the rest of our time with nana.

thanks for the bath bombs, nana!!

SUCH an awesome, amazing christmas - loved being with family, all of the good food and touched by the generosity of all.  thank you thank you everyone.  grateful for our family and friends.  grateful for our health.  merry christmas my loves!!

the last of the thanksgiving leftovers/the plague/the countdown to christmas

a few more thanksgiving pics from auntie elaine - thank you for always being the photog at family get-togethers!!  

back at home, ella finished up another round of the after school art program!  (with max's nativity scene).  

...and then...there was a plague upon my house.  on tuesday the 12th, i received a call around lunchtime that max wasn't feeling well.  i picked him up from school, came home, then later got ella. on wednesday, i kept them both home because max still wasn't feeling well and ella woke up with a cough.  on thursday, ella went back to school and i took max to the doctor.  he had laryngitis.  and paraflu (adult croup).  his rapid strep test came back negative, but by the time we got home, i received a call from the nurse (who is also a family friend) saying that his rapid test changed to positive.  ugh. friday, ella threw up in the car on the way to school, so we stayed home and left only to start the round of antibiotics.

unfortunately, we missed gingerbread decorating with the burts and a birthday party, BUT, we were cleared for our winterhaven wagon ride!!  yay!  bring on the hot chocolate, cookies and popcorn!

gigi and poppie were there too - oh so much fun!

with rog in DC, we celebrated our christmas with the burts/cotters on monday at bear canyon pizza.  so thankful for our tucson family!

on tuesday, i helped out with max's holiday party in his classroom then we got ready to welcome nana to tucson!!

the kids were super excited to show nana their school - max showed her his 'be kind' poster...

...and ella showed nana where she anticipated her shadow would go on the mural!

on thursdsay, ella finished her 'art in china' class with ms. julie.

her "terra cotta" soldier

pandas and bamboo.  ms. julie said she is awesome at drawing!

on friday, we took nana to roadhouse cinemas to watch star wars: the last jedi!  great movie and so much fun!

thank you, nana for max's new robe!  he's super warm and comfy now.  :-)

cooking done and gingerbread house assembled, we are ready for christmas!!!