We began our festivities by attending the Christmas eve service at our church. Ella sang with the children's choir and Biniyam enjoyed multiple cookies in an attempt to keep him from shouting "Jingle Bells" too loudly. ( at a recent library story time Bini jumped and danced around the room yelling "jingle bells" over and over again. It was hilarious but a bit disruptive and we will not be attending story time again anytime soon!)
as per Christmas tradition both kids opened a present on Christmas eve.
and left cookies for Santa (Ella does know, but likes the traditions)
Christmas morning arrived with a mellow Ella, she just wanted to cuddle and listen to the story of Christ's birth, we finally convinced her to open her stocking. It's so fun to see her excitement about little things- like the pink stapler which she has been talking about since she saw it last summer.
Finally at 8:45 Ella and I woke Bini. Ella later told us her favorite part of the day was seeing Bini's reaction to his train table. And Bini did love his train table, to change his diaper I had to pry him away from it as he yelled "trains, trains"
"Books are toys"-Ella
Auntie Deb and Uncle Cecil joined us for dinner
Greg and My greatest surprise of the day was that Ella can hula hoop! She asked for one, but we had no idea she could actually do it. Apparently she learned in ballet.
One week after Christmas came another very important day, most people just know it as New Years Eve, but to us it's Ella's Birthday. Happy 6th Birthday to our sweet princess!
Ella really wanted to have her birthday party on her birthday so after a morning at Chuck-E-Cheese we had her friend Clara over, they had a treasure hunt, pinata, dinner (steak and mac-n-cheese) decorated cupcakes and then had a "half over" - where they got in pj's and all ready for bed and then got to watch a movie as if it were a sleep over, but then Clara went home to sleep.
On New Years day we headed south to Greg's cousins, It was great spending time with family!
We went to North West trek- kind of a Safari of north west animals. That's a beaver behind Ella above, and wolves below, we also went on a bus to see moose, elk, long horned sheep, bison, and more.
Greg's cousin has horses!
Ella loves horses!
Ella, Elise and Biniyam
Ella really wanted to have her birthday party on her birthday so after a morning at Chuck-E-Cheese we had her friend Clara over, they had a treasure hunt, pinata, dinner (steak and mac-n-cheese) decorated cupcakes and then had a "half over" - where they got in pj's and all ready for bed and then got to watch a movie as if it were a sleep over, but then Clara went home to sleep. 
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