Our holiday recap is coming to you a little bit late because the day after Christmas Matt and I were lucky enough to head off to spend a night at the Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa while my mom watched Ella. We've stayed there once before (almost three years ago), and I'm so glad we were able to go back again before the move. It was amazing, and I can't remember ever feeling quite so relaxed. I think a mini spa vacation is the perfect way to unwind right after Christmas is over. I wonder if I can somehow convince Matt that we need to plan something like this every year? Actually, I doubt that he would need much convincing.
Let's get on with the Christmas pictures, since that is really what everybody came here to see right?
A couple of days before Christmas I broke out my Kitchen-Aid mixer (it very rarely sees the light of day, I'm sorry to say) and made not one, but two different types of cookies. I honestly had no idea how much work it would be. It took the entire day, but it was well worth it and actually a lot of fun. I got the recipes from Kim and I recommend you run right over to her blog and pick them up for yourself here and here. Especially make sure to grab that sugar cookie recipe. I can't even tell you how many of those I've eaten this past week. Ella was so interested in the whole process (especially the mixing part, since sadly I don't think she has ever seen me do such a thing before) that she refused to let me put her down the entire time. My arms were extremely sore the next day. Actually, it was a good way to work off a few of those sugar cookie calories now that I think about it.
Me in an apron, a rare sight:
Don't these look pretty?
Moving right along, here's our family after church on Christmas Eve and another one of Ella in her Christmas dress:
And here's our tree after Santa came and left presents. I experimented with an extra long shutter speed and my tripod to get the lights on the tree to look twinkly. I know the tree is sad without any ornaments, we'll work on that for next year!
Finally we arrive at Christmas morning. Ella got a play kitchen from Santa, and when she came downstairs and saw it she just headed right over to it and started playing like it had been there her whole life.
Of course, the gift she was most thrilled with was the play cell phone Santa left in her stocking, which couldn't have cost him more than $10. I guess he really didn't need to be bothered getting her anything else! Here she is excitedly pressing the buttons. I have about 20 other pictures with this exact same expression on her face.
And finally, some other pictures from the day:
And a bonus video of Ella seeing what Santa left her on Christmas morning:
Christmas 2006 from Jennifer Woodbury on Vimeo.
It was fun to see Ella sort of "get" the whole opening presents thing, although once she opened one toy and started playing with it, it was hard to convince her to open another. In fact, she eventually got so tired of opening presents that there are still two presents sitting in the living room that she never got around to opening. We should probably open those sometime soon!
The tree is already down and all the decorations are put away. It feels good to get the house back to normal as soon as Christmas is over. The plan for this weekend is just to relax with the family one last time before I have to come to grips with the fact that we are really moving. Two weeks from tomorrow the movers come to pack the house. Now that's a scary thought.
Happy New Year!
