Ho, ho, ho!

What a very merry Christmas we had! Gaga and Papa are/were here, there was snow on the ground (it was the first white Christmas in Dallas in 80 years!), presents under the tree, and more food than I care to admit.

The festivities began on Tuesday when we went to look at Christmas lights. It was so much fun to pile into the car, drink hot chocolate, and look at the most impressive light displays I have ever seen. And the best part was watching Ellie get so excited. She liked pointing out the "'nowman" and "Cole, cole, cole" (Santa, who she gets confused with Old King Cole from her nursery rhyme book). Damian got Ellie out of the car for a closer look a few times and she loved checking out the animated displays. One house had music playing and she stood on the sidewalk dancing for ages. It was really warm so most people were driving around with their windows down; as the cars passed Ellie, we heard several people cry "look at the little baby!" So cute.

On Wednesday, we went to a Christmas Eve eve service at church that was wonderful. We met the Adams family there and Jackson and Ellie had a great time running around after the service. Charlie enjoyed listening to the music and looking at all of the lights and candles. Just what we needed to get into the Christmas spirit! I didn't get pictures of Ellie in her Christmas dress, but here's a picture of Charlie in his finest:

On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a big meal and got to bed early -- we didn't want to be awake when Santa came, of course!

Gaga and Charlie (see, he really does like the Bumbo!)

Miss Ellie did NOT want to be photographed, but Charlie didn't mind the attention:

We didn't get a picture of the entire spread, but this is the dish/dessert I was most proud of -- a chocolate (and cherry) yule log. And behind it is Damian's awesome centerpiece, which he made from clippings that he got out of our yard -- I had never even noticed that we had any pretty plants around!

On Christmas morning, we woke up to two miracles...Charlie had slept for 8 straight hours (yippee!) and there was snow on the ground! We braved the cold and took the kiddos out for a rare photo opportunity:

Ellie was spoiled rotten with more gifts that she knew what to do with! She opened her first gift (one of the many great books that Papa and Gaga got her) and spent at least 20 minutes "reading" it, without any interest in opening another gift. We finally talked her into checking out a few more gifts, but in the end, it took her two full days to open all of her gifts! I'm sure that next year, when we're dodging flying bows and paper as she tears her way through the pile of gifts without paying any attention to what she's opened, we'll look back on this year's pace with fondness and longing. ;-)

She did eventually notice the super-cool wagon that Shiny Grandpa and Meme gave her and enjoyed climbing in and out of it (and in and out of it, and in and out of it) and opening other gifts from her perch:

A classic Ellie expression:

That night, we had another big meal. Ellie wasn't interested in much of the food (other than the ham), but she loved the crown from her Christmas cracker:
Charlie enjoyed sitting at the table and watching all of the action:

All of the civilized, sophisticated action, that is:

The prince and princess:

Papa and Ellie watching TV:

The finale of the Christmas meal was the flaming Christmas pudding.

Thank you, Gaga and Papa, for spending Christmas with us and making it so special. We would have ended up having Taco Cabana for Christmas dinner if you weren't here entertaining the kids, helping us shop, and doing so much cleaning!

That's the way he rolls

A couple days ago, Charlie started rolling from his back to his tummy! Normally, he just rolls all the way over on his side but then gets stuck when he can't figure out how to roll over his arm. He's still swaddled at night so it makes it a lot easier to get that arm tucked under him and he made his first complete roll at 2:00 a.m., which I discovered when I found him face down in the crib. Very exciting...but slightly less so at that hour. Today, he rolled twice from his tummy to his back, but Gaga is fairly certain that it was luck (I didn't see it) -- we'll see if/when it happens again!

How do they compare?

I took Charlie to the doc today (he has two ear infections) and had him weighed and measured because I've been so curious to see how he's growing. They didn't do the "official" weigh-in (where they strip him down to just a dry diaper), but fully clothed and in a not-totally-dry diaper, he weighs 15 lbs., 10 oz. and he's 25.5 inches long. They didn't tell me what percentile that puts him in, but according to one website, he's in the 25-50th percentile on weight and 50-75th on length, which seemed low until I dug out Ellie's stats; at four months, she weighed 16 lbs., 15 oz. (in just a dry diaper) and was 27 inches long. Guess Charlie has some catching up to do!

I can't find a picture of Ellie at 4 months (I know there are millions of them out there, I just don't have them on my computer for some reason), but here's a comparison of Charlie at 3 months and Ellie at 2.5 months.

So Miss Ellie was definitely a bit more fluffy and, in general, I don't think they look very much alike. It will be fun to see in what ways they end up looking similar and in what ways they look different.

Big boy Charlie

Charlie is getting so big! He sits in the exercauser and the bumbo; not for long, but he's getting stronger. And he really does like it...really.

Ellie's Christmas program

Miss Ellie had her Christmas program at school today. Her class "sang" Jingle Bells at the very beginning and then left -- the teachers wisely figured that they couldn't sit still for an hour! You can see Jackson on the right -- so handsome in his suit!

Not surprisingly, Ellie made a run for it as soon as the teachers were distracted:

We tried desperately to get a good picture of Ellie in her dress, but she wasn't in the mood to stand still. This is as good as it gets. Thanks, Gaga and Papa, for the cute dress!

Charlie was perfectly behaved -- he slept through the entire performance!

Videos, videos, and more videos!

Here are just a few of the videos that we took while in the UK:

The cousins burning off a little energy on the top bunk. Amazingly, none of them fell off!

Ellie giving Grandad a little love:

Ellie discovering that your breath looks like "moko" (smoke) when it's really cold outside:

We went up to York one night and they had a cute fun fair for kiddos. Ellie was so excited to ride all of the rides but once she was on them, she got very still and very quiet...very unusual!

On the carousel -- hope it doesn't make you dizzy!

Charlie demonstrating the "never turn your back on an unfamiliar dog" rule:

Ellie demonstrating the "never turn your back on an unfamiliar appliance" rule:

Video of Ellie's discovery of sugary breakfast cereal:

We didn't take pictures of the shops all decorated for Christmas, but this clip shows a few of them:

The cousins being crazy at Granddad and Grandma Sue's:

Charlie's standard greeting -- all smiles and spit-up!

We also went to a very cool park that had several Christmas-y attractions. We walked through the "Enchanted Woods," which had lots of pretty light displays...and an occasional ogre (guess it's also a Halloween attraction). Ellie really enjoyed making her own soundtrack: