Christmas (updated)

We had an awesome Christmas! It is just going to be more and more fun each year as Elena (and our future children) keep getting older. This year we were able to tell her about Santa Claus and the story of Christ's birth. She even carries around the Mary, Josesph, and Baby Jesus from her Little People Nativity in her bolsa (purse) everywhere she goes. She'll pull Jesus out and say, "This one is my favorite." It has just been a great month and we really loved seeing her learn new things and get into the spirit of it all. Here are some highlights:

Christmas Day
"Santa Claus brought me a little kitchen for me!" (Yes, she said me twice.) We had to explain that although Santa is pretty cool, this particular gift was from Granny and Grandad. Elena loves her Costco kitchen and is constantly asking people to "cook with me." Dan did a great job putting it together and fitting it into the trunk so that we could bring it to Virginia for Christmas.

This gift was from Santa and is another one of her favorites. As soon as she opened the tin of watercolors, she was nearly jumping up and down with excitement that Santa had brought her eyeshadow. I guess we'll wait a while longer to introduce painting because she loves her maquillaje (makeup).

"I need this" is what she is saying in this picture. We are working on using want instead of need and remembering to say please. Why is this such a hard concept?
Aunt BB (Bethany) got her a cute set of pots and pans for the kitchen.

Doesn't he look dapper? Bethany found this awesome clock for Dan.

Christmas afternoon we went to go play at a park and work off all of the calories that were consumed during dinner so that we would have room for my dad's extremely decadent chocolate birthday cake. He makes one each year to celebrate Christ's birthday. This is Elena in her coat at the park.

Christmas Eve

The whole day is chock full of traditions. So many that we can't even include all of them every year. Sometimes we make Grandma Wright's chocolates, sometimes we make plain chocolates, but this year we only did sugar and gingerbread cookies. Then we go caroling on our street. After that, we pile into the van and go caroling to the houses of friends around the city. This year, because of Elena's bedtime, the list of houses was shortened down to about 10. It was the shortest that it has even been, and it was perfect! :)

Making cookies:

The caroling crew:

One of our favorite stops - the DiSistos: