What a beautiful holiday season it was! Fasten your seat belts, this is going to be a long, picture filled post.
I had previously said there were no pictures from Thanksgiving, but thanks to Auntie Gia (Julia) a few have surfaced. Lily and Auntie Erin were darn near twins, and they didn't even plan it! Lily was sick for Halloween and Turkey day this year, but we managed a healthy Christmas and were so thankful for that gift!
The week before Christmas Lily watched her very first play. We caught the Eastview high school production of "Annie", already a favorite musical of ours. Lily was a bit leery of the live orchestra at first, but was soon leading the audience in applause for the fine performance! The lead roll was played by an amazing young woman that I can remember as a toddler in the nursery at church. Incredible performances by all!
After it was finished we asked Lily what she thought: "That was a great movie!" she exclaimed!
Cookie baking has become a big part of our holiday traditions, especially now that my grandma, cookie extraordinaire, has passed away. We spend several afternoons making a variety of tasty treats. It has been fun to see Lily get in on the action this year.
Since my mom had to work Christmas Eve, we decided to do the "big dinner" thing a few days earlier. It was nice to spread out the holiday cheer and enjoy it over several days, rather than 24 hours. We had Honey Baked Ham and all the trimmings.
After dinner, Beth and I decided to decorate the mini sugar cookies that we had baked earlier that day. Letting our creativity run wild, we had a lot of fun trying to come up with a variety of holiday decors.
These seem to be Lily's favorite type of cookie to make- the ones that involve frosting application.
Our beautiful creations!
That's right- we were feeling proud!
Lily and uncle Hec getting ready to say good bye.
The traditions continue with our annual trip downtown to the 8th floor display at Dayton's/Marshall Field's/ Macy's. Mara and I brought Sam and Lily down to see "The Life of an Elf". (the same as last year's display "back by popular demand". I say "back by recession") The girls drank their "coffee" and had a great time together. We grabbed lunch with Bjorn while we were there too.
Lily also had her EEG that week of Christmas. While it is a painless procedure, it does quite a number on the hair. Lily was not amused at me photographing her, but she just looked so pitifully cute!
Christmas Eve: it was snowtastrophe '09 as the fluffy stuff came down in big flakes all night long. It made for a beautiful white Christmas though, and a great excuse to be cozy. While many of our family was spread around town for the earlier part of the evening, the whole Mitchell family ends up at Papa & Grandma's to spend the night. Our good friend and neighbor makes the most incredible egg rolls ever, and brings them over as a special gift each Christmas Eve.
My parent's house was straight out of a Thomas Kincaid picture.
My parents made ice candles for each house on the block in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Erin and I loaded up Papa's truck, went out Christmas Eve and placed a candle at the end of each driveway. I wish I had pictures of the wet mess we were after an hour in the the thick snow, Erin in her snowsuit sitting in the bed of the truck as we delivered the candles up and down the block. I thought the candles would go out right away due to the wet snow, but they ended up all staying lit long after mom got home from work, a Christmas miracle. She was delighted!
Every Christmas morning we all wake up in our matching pajamas and gather around the tree to open gifts in front of the yule log on channel 45. The last few years we have drawn names and attempted to keep the name we draw a secret for the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas morning is one of my favorite moments of the entire year- everyone together.
(My 2 favorite things)
Hec headed out for a quick shovel in Beth's coat.
Waffles have become another part of our morning tradition.
Bjorn ordered a beautiful puzzle of Cinderella's castle that Papa (puzzle man extraordinaire) put together and mounted for Lily's room. She loved it!
The Fam opening gifts.
Lily's other "big" present was a "new" (fabulous hand-me-down from Sammy) bike!! Princesses and all, with a new helmet to boot!
Feeling cool cruisin' around the living room.
"Elliot- give me a push!"
"Elliot- give me a push!"
"I'll never let go."
What a girl!
My best girl.
As we left to go home and get ready for the rest of the day, Papa and Mom were shoveling us out. When we got home, we discovered our incredible neighbor had been over with his snow blower!
Each Christmas day my Aunt and Uncle have my entire Dad's side over to their house for a big dinner. Big, because my day is 1 of 9 brothers and sisters, and all but 1 live in the Metro area. Big because there are 50 or so grand kids now, along with several great grand kids too. Twice a year (the other time is the Mitchell Open, a golf tourney in June) we all gather and catch up with our wonderful extended family.
Here's Lily with her great grandma Mitchell on the right, my great aunt Janet on the left and my aunt Mary straight back.
Papa and I looking especially festive. : )
Lily and the Haileys (2 other great-grand kids) playing piano.
Each year Uncle Gordon and Aunt Teresa add to the excitement by having a group game/challenge for the grand kids to participate in. There's been dancing with Santa and Elmo, dressing like raindeer, and stuffing balloons into large red pajamas. This year's game was a Santa's beard race, where one person on the team smeared vasoline on the other person and tried to see how many cotton balls would stick. I was glad to be the smearer, Bjorn was not so lucky.
Beth, Erin & Elliot lucked out too, while Hector and Gia had the gift of a Christmas shave.
Bjorn's team actually won this year with 70+ cotton balls. Bjorn believed it was because of his strategic cotton ball clumping.
Check out that 5 o'clock shadow!
I was absolutly smitten with Lily's red shoes this holiday season, and she really seemed to like them too- which is always nice.
Bjorn and Lily running up and down (and up and down) the hall.
Why can't they make these sort of things in my size?
Happy together, happy to be so blessed.
And sometimes, you gotta take the best picture you get...(sorry about the eyes dada...)
As another Christmas fades away, I often feel down with the post-holiday blues. This quote from Bob Hope really put things into perspective for me:
As another Christmas fades away, I often feel down with the post-holiday blues. This quote from Bob Hope really put things into perspective for me: "My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?" Right on, Bob, right on.
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