Our Christmas weekend

Tim's birthday is Christmas Eve. Elle and I gave him the gift of sleeping in - we went out to breakfast so he could have quiet (I think I'm going to make breakfast-on-Daddy's-birthday a tradition). When he woke up, I made him breakfast and he settled in to watch the Bengals game. After the game, we attempted a video chat with his family (more on that later!) and then headed to dinner (at Moe's, Tim's birthday restaurant of choice).

After dinner, we took a walk along the river and looked at all of the lights on the boats and the light displays. This one was my favorite:

Tim spent the last part of his birthday putting together Elle's play kitchen and watching a movie with his favorite wife :)

On Christmas morning, Elle woke up unusually early. Like 5:50 a.m. I got her back to sleep at 6:30 ... until she woke up 20 minutes later. At that point, we decided we were all up for the day, and we brought Elle out to see what Santa had brought.

She was so cute - she didn't even realize anything was different at first, and then she got super serious about exploring the kitchen.

Elle wasn't really in to the actual opening of the presents, but she was very interested in playing with them. She loved everything, and she received a lot of really cool toys, books and clothes.

The laptop from Mommy and Daddy has been a hit. You can customize it, too, so Elle gets e-mails (a new word she's picked up) from Mommy and Daddy. She's learning letters and animals from it already, too, and Tim and I are quoting it to each other (if you have the Scout or Violet toy, you'll understand the catch phrases that are easy to pick up from these toys). 

She started reading the "Llama llama" books right away, too.

The bright side of Elle waking up so early is that we were able to get ready for church without rushing. Elle wore a cute dress and (shockingly) sat quietly throughout the service - I think it was part Cheerios, part lots of singing that kept her distracted.

And just for the sake of humoring my addiction to Elle nostalgia, I offer you Christmas past and Christmas present:

2010: Totally overwhelmed by the jumperoo.

2011: Can't be bothered because we're busy with our new kitchen.