Christmas Dinner

And then The Grinch Movie!

Christmas Morning

Again, like last year she was overwhelmed by the presents and wanted to go play after opening two.  But we kept at it all day and she got some really great things that are perfect for her. 

A box of small Winnie The Pooh books from Grandpa Mac (at this point she's most excited about practicing opening and closing the snaps on the box)

A Value Tale book from Aunt Amy (which was really for her Papa)

At breakfast she had to have her new twin puppies from Bev at the table with their own plates.

Other people received presents too, believe it or not...

She received a lot of books which we had to read right away (thanks Aunt Stephanie)

Her Nana got her a beautiful pink dress that has been off and on throughout the day. 

"Wook! I'm bee-ootiful!"

Bev, Tom and Murphy's

We went to Bev and Tom's house in Woodinville for Christmas Eve and there were two things that stood out. 

The bowl of whipped cream for dessert,

And Murphy the Schnauzer who was veeeeery interested in that tiny person who walked around dropping crackers and playing with his stuffed animals.  

(Margie this photo below is a perfect example of how Oly sometimes looks exactly like a tiny version of you!)

Oly is still a huge fan of her Uncle Tom (click and scroll down to see last year.)

Other Things We've Been Up To....

Early morning legos

Tea parties

Reading books at El Gitano

Reading books to Oly and Pauls son Kyler, who were little maniacs at a get-together we had for Tim's best friends from high school and their kiddos.

Don't they look like they could be brother and sister?

Tim, Kyle and Paul

 This is Kyle and his baby Kenzie, looking over at Claire, Paul's baby.

Grandmom with Claire

Nana with Kenzie

It was bedtime for tiny baby girls

"Adbent Cawendar"

Aunt Margie got a really cool online advent calender for Oly to do this December, and Oly is ordering the whole gang to do it constantly

Elliott is probably hearing 'Ding Dong Merrily On High' in his sleep.

Grandpa! Grandpa!

After meeting Santa Claus in the airport, she was much more excited to see her Grandpa Dave.  She wasn't expecting him to be there and after sprinting towards her Nana, she veered off to the side screaming, "Grandpa!  Grandpa!"

I'm not sure who was happier watching the Flyers last night, Oly Lou or her Grandpa Dave.  Her favorite player is Claude Giroux, which she pronounces perfectly to her Grandpa's delight.  

We finally got them both to settle down and read some stories before bedtime.  

While Grandpa gets all the excitement, Nana has been the one actually taking care of Oly (while her parents slack off).  She makes her food, plays with her dutifully and makes sure she has plenty of activities to do.  Here they are making an omelette.  

And decorating the Christmas tree

  

Much more to come........

At The Airport

A Family of Octopus

The Nutcracker

This morning I woke up with this little munchkin kicking me in the stomach:

Tim's away on business and apparently I was too tired to put her back in her own bed at 4 am, so she slept soundly with her feet ON ME for 4 more hours.  

After a full pancake breakfast we put on her new fancy dress for something we've been looking forward to for a loooong time.  The Nutcracker put on by the International Ballet Classique!  Our friend Amber (Mom of Pee-Wee) used to dance with them and her Mother is the Executive Director.  We attended one of the abridged matinee performances (it's basically the second half of the ballet, with all of the dolls dancing and just a glimpse of the scary mouse king) and children were welcome to talk and walk around during the performance.  

While we were waiting for the show to begin she walked right up on stage like she was born to be there. 

She stayed in my lap almost the entire time yelling, "GOOD JOB BALLERINAS!!!!!" after every dance was completed.  

And since we had an 'in' with the show (and when I saw "we" I mean all 40 of our friends who came with Amber) we got to go backstage and talk to the dancers.

Here is Oly, her classmate Scarlett and her big brother Hudson posing with one of the "chinese dancers", a few flowers and the Snow Queen.  The dancer on the top left is Hallie, their teacher Robin's daughter who taught them sign language one day in class.  Oly kept saying, "I love your pretty shoes."

And now for days and days we will talk endlessly about how, "Clara had a scary dream about the Mouse King.  He's a baddy who camed and was scary and so the Nutcracker bonked him with his sword and then he left and Clara was soooo happy and everybody danced."  

2 quick photos

A very uncharacteristic photo of how Oly and Tommy spend their time together:

This one's spot on though.  A visit to Terrain, the fancy garden store was a perfect opportunity to find a 'stage' and practice bring a Ballerina.  

Christmas Cookies

Oly and I frosted Christmas cookies together.  Well we started out doing it together, but then after several empty threats of, "Olympia Louise if you eat one more spoonful of frosting I'm putting them away" I frosted them and put her on sprinkle duty.

She was a little heavy handed.

I'll be finding sprinkles in the cracks of the hardwood floors for years to come.