Christmas 2021 - Part 2
We celebrated our Christmas at our house on Christmas Day. It was a nice, low-key day at home that included opening gifts, a big breakfast (with cinnamon rolls, the highlight of the meal) and watching Charlie Brown’s Christmas. I did start the day out with an attempt at some portraits in front of the tree in their Christmas pj’s…as you can see, Zoe was not a fan of this plan.
I love that the girls are both old enough now to pick out what they want to give each other for Christmas. Ava was so excited to get Zoe the JJ doll, from Cocomelon. Zoe picked out a book for Ava through the Scholastic book club at her school but we knew it wouldn’t arrive in time. So, I took her to Target to pick out a small gift for Ava to be able to open. After much searching, she picked a BFF necklace and some hair ties for Ava.
As usual, we did our 3 categories of gifts plus something for them to give. This year, they actually ended up giving multiple gifts. We made our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes as usual. Zoe’s dance studio also collected gift cards for the Greenville Foster Parent Association and we let the girls each pick out a gift card to give. Then I got an email from a friend who is a missionary in India. She said that she and some friends there were working to create shoeboxes for the slum kids. Because India is a closed country, OCC can’t deliver shoeboxes as a Christian organization. So, these ladies wanted to do something for the slum kids for Christmas. We had each of our girls donate the suggested amount to create a box. The report from my friend was that they over-budgeted what it would cost to create a box for the kids and were able to actually give them blankets and a meal on top of the fun backpack/box! We love teaching our girls that Christmas is not just about getting presents and that there are many people around the world that are much less fortunate than they are. We hope that these little gestures will help them as they grow up to care for the less fortunate.
For the girls’ first gift from us, we did something they needed. Ava needed larger ice skates and was so excited to get new ones. Unfortunately, her foot is growing so fast the new ones were too small so we had to order a different pair. Zoe was super excited about her new lunch box, thermos and bento box. She loves staying late on Fridays at school and eating her lunch there. She’s been using an old lunch bag of mine so now she has her own like a big girl.
As always, both girls got a few books featuring brown skinned characters as their something to read gift.
Their final gift was something they wanted. Ava had been asking for Disney Princess barbie style dolls and was so happy to get them. Zoe is our little architect/engineer so we got her a Princess lego set. We never ventured into legos with Ava but Zoe is in love with them!
Both girls loved searching their stockings for the little surprises in them. One of the favorites was a craft box that DJ and I found at the Indie Craft Parade Pop Up Shop. They are from Re-Craft Greenville that uses all recycled items to create crafts. They were old cigar boxes that included stamps, maps, random magazine pages and mod podge that you could use to decorate the box any way you want. The girls loved putting them together and it was a fun Christmas weekend craft.
We had a really nice Christmas day as a family. These 2 girls didn’t get a gift this year (sorry pups) but they loved being with us and both looked so cute in front of the tree that I had to get their pictures too (Kate was hiding somewhere as usual).
Christmas Eve 2021 - Portraits
I convinced the girls to wear their matching outfits for the Christmas Eve service and to take some portraits before we left. Well, I didn’t have to convince Zoe to match Ava but Ava is not a fan of matching her little sister anymore. I told her, at least for this year, Christmas is one time that I do really want you to match. We’ll see how much longer I can pull that off…probably not even next year. I hadn’t planned on making the girls any clothes for Christmas but Zoe convinced me to go to Joann with her and pick out some Christmas fabric after she was looking through my fabric scraps. I found this fabric that matched the shirts I had already bought them so it ended up being a super cute and super easy project. And I really do not know what these crazy girls were doing during these pictures. After pictures, we headed to the Christmas Eve service at our church with my mom and DJ’s parents, where Ava was so excited to hold her own candle for the first time. It was so nice to be able to attend the service in person this year!
Christmas 2021 - Part 1
This year we enjoyed celebrating Christmas with our families! We spent a couple days before Christmas with my side of the family and then a couple days after Christmas with DJ’s family. Unfortunately, due to a new job (which is exciting), my brother wasn’t able to come up for Christmas this year. We hated not being able to see him this year but were very happy to get to spend some time with Jenn, Piper and Ana, their exchange student from Spain. We spent some time with them at my mom’s house and the girls loved playing with the big girls. We loved meeting Ana and getting to know her and hear all about her time in the States. And thanks to Ana, we actually got a full group picture!
After having our Christmas with my mom, we were able to celebrate our Christmas with my dad’s side of the family. Due to my mom and grandmother’s recent surgeries, they couldn’t travel to my aunt and uncle’s house so we offered to host. It was so fun being able to have my whole family at our house for the first time. We are thankful we have the space to host family gatherings now. Sadly, little Lucy ended up with a cold so she and Will weren’t able to come over. The girls were bummed they couldn’t play with Lucy but they loved meeting their newest cousin, Olivia and playing with Ana, Piper and Blake. The “girl gang” had a blast together and we all loved watching them play. It was such a special day together as a family but we were all missing 3 men who would have loved being there with everyone, my Grampie, my dad and my cousin Ryan. Family gatherings are just not the same without those guys.
Christmas Cookies 2021
As usual, the girls and I made gingerbread men for Christmas this year. We typically make them early in December to have for Christmas gifts for teachers but decided not to do that again this year with COVID. And as you can see in the pictures, we made the cookies in typical 2021 fashion….Zoe had a little cough so to be safe, she wore her mask while helping. We didn’t want to add any germs to the cookies, just LOTS of sprinkles. Maybe next year we can go back to more normal life and give cookies out to our teachers/friends. But, even if not, we will still enjoy making them!
Random Phone Photo Dump
Here are some random pictures from my phone from the past few weeks.
Kate is loving our screened in porch these days! She asks to go out all the time.
Zoe wanted to try on my Derby hat….she looks super cute in it!
Winnie wasn’t thrilled with the girls playing dress up with her.
When Zoe asks me to take her picture, I happily oblige.
Ava had some fun dress up days the last 3 Friday's before Christmas break. I only got a picture on the first day - Wacky Christmas Day
Free hair day before having it braided again by Ms. Tiffany
Zoe’s last day of school before Christmas break was the day she’s been waiting for all year - PJ day!!
Twinkle Bear Tree
Zoe’s dance studio was asked to sponsor a Christmas tree at the Hyatt this year. They had each of the dancers decorate Twinkle Bear ornaments during class that they put on the tree. We made sure to take the girls to see Zoe’s tree and all the other fun trees. We just love our dance studio!
Zoe’s Dance Costume
I convinced Zoe to let me take some portraits of her in her recital costume….well, in part of it at least. She looked so cute dressed as a penguin during her dance. She didn’t want to wear all the accessories in the pictures so I worked with what she was willing to do. And of course, in true Zoe fashion, she got super silly during the pictures. We love our little penguin dancer!
Zoe’s Winter Showcase 2021
Zoe had her dance recital the first Saturday in December. This was her first real recital on a big stage because of COVID. The recital was at Furman and we were so excited to be able to share this special event with family. This was the first time Ava and grandparents were able to come see Zoe perform live, again because of COVID. The dance studio was so excited to finally be able to put on this showcase and it was such a fun event, especially with the surprise guest, Anna! Zoe did such a great job during her dance. I wasn’t able to take pictures during the performance but we will get professional photos in a few weeks, hopefully. We are so proud of our little dancer!
Christmas Tree 2021
After almost not being able to cut our own tree last year, we decided to go get our tree a week early this year. We headed out the day after Thanksgiving to cut our tree this year. We drove past a farm in Greenville but they didn’t have many trees and the parking lot was packed. So, we headed on to the farm we went to 2 years ago (and tried to go to last year) near Liberty. Thankfully, this farm had tons of beautiful trees and we were able to pick out a great tree. We love cutting our tree down each year and the girls had a blast picking it out and then decorating that afternoon (with the dogs’ help).
Family Portraits 2021
We had our family portraits taken again this fall and our friend, Katelyn, did a great job capturing our family as usual! There are just too many good ones to share….
