The 'Ei's Have It: 2014

Well, I chose Christmas movies and present-wrapping over clearing out camera space by posting a pre-Christmas blog full of Advent pictures, so hang in there! This one's a doozy (in the absolute best sense of the word, of course).

Christmas ready-ing mingled with every-day festivities as we prepared for the big 2-5.

Allie got a hold of my heels and dubbed them my 'rock star shoes.' The shoes are now MUCH more exciting.

Being...

A...

Rock Star...

Is Serious Business.

And so is decorating the tree. (She's mesmerized by her new singing Elsa ornament.)

Both of our girls are pretty into Christmas movies...

Especially the furry one.

And, pretty into Christmas snuggles.

And slobbers.

At her school, Allie carried on the family tradition of representing a donkey at Christmas time. I was also 'shaggy and brown, carrying His mother up-hill and down.'

She brought the 'gusto' to her verse of the Friendly Beasts (before getting waylaid by a rogue bobby-pin).

'Hee-Haw! Hello Sam! How are you?'

And what Christmas is complete without a Christmas tutu (thanks, Gayle!) paired with a Sophia dress, Hawaiian lay, and a Captain America Tiara?

Not ours!

'And Allie in her ridiculously large bow, and Abs in her cap, had just settled down...'

Who are we kidding? Only half of this duo ever naps.

Barb, Allie and I braved the drizzle to celebrate Christmas in Middleburg with the old-school-horse-crowds of Virginia. It's like walking into a picture print from Currier and Ives.

Even the rain didn't dampen the wonder.

Christmas-ly majestic even in the dampness.

These guys didn't seem to mind the weather at all.

Nothing like a visit with Santa to brighten a gloomy-weather day!

We all went to see our very own, Jamie play Daddy Warbucks in my high school's production of Annie two weekends before Christmas. Allie spent half of the show in a standing ovation and got autographs of all of the cast (first, and foremost, Sandy's, played by one of her schoolmates).

Starstruck by Daddy Warbucks. Leeping Lizards he was good!

Since seeing Annie, Allie has had a split personality. We have to listen closely to see if we should address her as Allie or Annie. She practices both signatures, and there were even a few presents under the tree, courtesy of 'Annie.'

The redhead won out on this one.

The big girls took a night out for some Christmas cheer too. Barb and I went to go see the Moscow Ballet's production of the Nutcracker at George Mason. It was a far cry from Barbie and Angelina Ballerina's nutcracker and the little-girl-in-Christmas-dresses-watching was almost as good as the production. A few more years and we'll bring Allie with us. For now, she needs a theatrical environment in which, well, she can be theatrical while watching.

Nutcracker selfie.

The next weekend, we went to go see Riley in the dance performance of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Riley made it through the entire number on stage and was the cutest dancing shopper we've ever seen.

Oh, the uncontrollable cheer!

The last day before break (I say this, in complete denial of the fact that it wasn't really my last day before break this year), Allie helped me deliver Christmas Morning Casserole to the counseling department and the main office. She dressed the part with her Christmas Santa get-up, thanks to a thrifty and bargain-shopping Grandmom. Being ready for 'work' as a Christmas breakfast helper at Mommy's school is one of the few things that will make this kid smile during our morning prep routine.

Barb and I received souvenir DVDs of the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker performance and after watching it, Allie insisted that her Daddy help her with the Arabian Dance...the most acrobatic and athletic of the dances...of course. This is what it looks like in real life.

Do not try this at home.

We went over to Grammy and Grandpop's for our annual Pizzelle-making evening.

Let the waffling begin!

Who new pizzelles required cheese?

Grandmom and Grandpa came in on Tuesday and the food prep began in earnest. Rapunzel even deigned to help roll the sausage and cheese balls.

Twas the night before Christmas Eve and all through the house...

A Grandmom was reading to her granddaughter and a mouse.

Auntie Erin came through in a big way with something Allie didn't even know was missing from her life until she opened it. As I'm typing, I hear the Barbie dog sneezing, coughing, and having her nose blown by our resident vet.

Total score.

Santa brought our 3-going-on-13-year-old clip-on earrings in her stocking. They didn't last long...

But they were on long enough to make me want to zip her back up into a onesie...stat.

Don't let her fool you, this is snuggling, not slumbering.

And this year, Allie decided that Santa needed a little pick-me-up, so she left him coffee...black...with a lid...and a straw.

It worked!

Even Abs agreed...

Yep! Definitely worked.

We had a SUPER Christmas day.

High-speed, joy alert!

Even super-heroes pause for a photo-break.

Aaaaand, a disco, I mean super-hero pose.

Abs was BEYOND thrilled to be in a picture with this crazy crew.

No pressure to look quickly here, not much has changed in Allie's outfitting since this picture was taken...she's maybe been in real clothes 30% of the time since Christmas...maybe.

Christmas Blessings and a Happy New Year...

From our deer family...

To yours.

Hold onto your hats. We have a second post in one month...(clearly, it's an early Christmas miracle). Thanksgiving came quickly, but full of family, friends and fun. My parents came up to the wintery North the Sunday before Thanksgiving and were able to spend two full days of Allie-time while Chris and I finished out our work week. Allie's play and chatter-quota is quite large, so they earned their Thanksgiving second-helpings.

We ran some pre-Thanksgiving errands at the mall before the masses invaded on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. We walked in and found the Macy's mailbox standing right in front of us. At school, my advisory group is writing letters to Santa to raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation (Macy's partners with Make A Wish and donates $1 per letter) and Allie knows that she will be the official letter deliverer, so she knew exactly what to do when she saw the letter station staring her in the face.

And yes...the tiara is standard mall attire.

We had a pre-Thanksgiving pie-making playdate with Riley and her parents that afternoon, but somehow the only pies that we finished were the pizza pies for dinner. There was simply too much playing to be done.

Baking buddies. Hard at work...not baking.

Grandmom Wintrode made these two ladies matching turkey aprons.
As if there was any question who the real turkeys were around here.

Extra cheese, please.

These girls...

Pinterest Poultry! Thanks to Riley's mommy, Heather.

It's a toss-up whether Abby's or my dad's birthday falls on Thanksgiving, and this year it was our pup's turn. We sang happy birthday to our newest 8-year-old, and, since we unforgivably left Frosty Paws off the grocery list, Allie insisted that Abby get her Christmas gift early...and so she did.

Nothing says Happy Birthday! like a fuzzy penguin in a snowsuit. She loved it.

Allie and I turkey-trotted over to the town center (if you've ever trotted with a three-year-old, you'll know why we didn't go farther).

Here she is sharing her glory with a poka-dotted stuffed unicorn in front of the Christmas tree.

We swept the top three spots.

After our trot, it was time to start getting ready for the feast.

A parade, pies, and grandparents? By bedtime her head was spinning.

Ta-da!!!

Don't be fooled by the familiar attire, she made an emergency costume-change into a dance dress for the post-dinner Thanksgiving show while we were eating. She only kept it on for about 45 minutes that day, so we reduced, reused, and recycled it the next for our Friday Christmas decorating efforts.