Ella's First Christmas!

Well I'm finally packing up Christmas stuff...I know, I know but the New Year has already began to get away from me. I'm trying to organize everything and get it into their respective boxes, label them, and find their new home in our house. So of course in order to get everything organized I must turn the entire house upside down, create chaos in every room and completly cover every counter or table in the house with Merry Christmas!

"The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they're organized for."

Some one knows me way to well!!!

So yesterday afternoon when I started tearing down Christmas I started looking at all of the heartfelt and meaningful things that Ella Grace got for her first Christmas!

My mom got her this Christopher Radko ornament with Santa and 2007 on it. She promises that she is going to add to Ella's collection every year with another ornament and then when she is old enough I will half-heartdly happily hand them over to her for her own tree in her own home...Isn't that a great tradition that we can carry on every year and she can still enjoy when she has her own family.

My dad and I have always loved snowglobes (in fact our "trophy" that we pass back and forth between our houses for the Tech vs. Texas Football game is a snowglobe...He still has the trophy for 2007 but I know that my boys will pull thru in 2008 and that beautiful trophy will be placed in a very prominent place shelf in my house - WRECK EM' TECH!!!)

So I was wonderfully surprised this year when I opened helped open Ella's Christmas Present from her Grandad...A beautiful snowglobe. Santa is walking thru the snow on Christmas Eve being guided by his lantern and carrying presents for all of the little boys and girls! It's just beautiful, it plays music and you can even set a switch on the bottom and it will play randomly.

The "snow" inside the globe just amazed Ella and I know that it will be a treasure every year when we get it out of the box and find the perfect place for it.




Brad and Ginger gave Ella her first Nutcracker and a beautiful Advent Calendar.

The nutcracker is a princess with a pink dress, tutu and tiara. You know what they say....Every day is tiara day and pink girlie stuff "rules" our house.

Ella got her best friend Alivia a nutcracker just like her's for Christmas - She thought that this was the most perfect gift for her best friends first Christmas!

The Advent calendar is shaped like a house and with all of the little doors that will hold many suprises for the days leading up to Christmas I know it will be a huge hit next year. If it had been stuffed with "surprises" this year Chad and I probably would have eaten everything inside...but it was a gift for Ella Grace so next year!

Then there was my attempt at a heartfelt present for my daughters first Christmas. When I was younger my grandmother Mommo made me themed felt and sequin ornaments each year. Mom was gracious enough this year to pass those on to us so that we could decorate the tree. They are bright and beautiful and I love the way that the Christmas lights reflect off of the sequins and beads.

So after receiveing the ornaments and decorating Ella's tree I decided that I would make her a Christmas stocking - It would be made with felt, sequins and beads and would go with her ornaments...She might could take it with her when she had a home of her own.

Well my "crafting" projects are a lot like: "My eyes are bigger than my stomach" and I tend to bite off more than I can chew. So on top of decorating the house "perfectly" for Ella's first Christmas, being sick, working full time and all of the other junk joys that come with the holiday season...it didn't get done - I don't think that this will go down in my fondest memories of motherhood journal. I failed the Christmas Stocking Project! As you can see in the picture the finished product is supposed to look like the stocking on the left and when I packed up jolly ole' St. Nick yesterday afternoon he wasn't to jolly and needed some face reconstructive surgery to say the least.

I'm trying not to be so hard on myself in 2008 so I packed laid Santa down for a long winter's nap and will wake him up after Thanksgiving, give him a face lift and display him for all to see and get him good and ready to be filled with goodies on Christmas Eve.

I may pay for my unfinished project in several years....after all Ella was only 17 weeks at Christmas do you think that she will remember that her mother didn't finish her stocking in time for St. Nick to arrive?

I better start saving for therapy now!!!