Elf Yourself

I had forgotten about the Elf Yourself website where you can put your faces in and watch yourself do hilarious dances each year at Christmastime.  So I put in Justin, Elias, myself, and Mrs. B since she's as beloved as a member of the family.  The video it made was hilarious - click here to watch my favorite.  (I believe the link is only live until January 15, so hurry on over if you want to see it.)

However, another version of the dance wasn't as good, but the ending pose was too hilarious - I took a screen capture to save it forever!

Justin dipping me and Elias dipping Mrs. B.  Couldn't get any more lifelike than that!

More Christmas Fun

In addition to the birthday party for Jesus, here are some other pictures from our Christmas Day together.  We went to church in the morning, and it was a really neat service.  They brought all the kids on stage and read the Christmas story from the Jesus Storybook Bible, which rocks my socks off.  I have never read anything out of that book without crying.  Ever.  If you have kids Elias' age or older, get one for them.  Anyhow, here is my adorable boy in his Christmas church outfit:

Who can resist a cutie in a sweater vest?  Not me.

Then the weather was really beautiful today - warm and sunny!  So my boys spent quite a bit of time playing outside!

My adorable boy in front of the neighbor's display of inflatables.  You should see their front yard!

Elias rode his tricycle.*

And we all played frisbee!

Then for dinner I cooked an ethnic Indian meal.  In my mind, it reminds us that the angel said "I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which will be FOR ALL PEOPLE!"  But really we just like Indian food.

Butter chicken, green bean & potato curry, and tomato rice.  YUM!

So we really had a special and enjoyable Christmas together!!


*Note: I've had a video of Elias riding his tricycle on these adorable ramps that Justin set up for him for MONTHS, and I've just been too much of a slacker to blog about it.  So, uh, look at these awesome ramps that Justin made for Elias, and see what fun Elias has riding his trike on them!!!

Christmas, Birthday-Style

Every year at Christmastime we really try to make it as meaningful and as honoring to Christ as we can.  So we try not to tie ourselves to traditions, but to be willing to try new things in order to make the holiday special.  This year we were at home just the three of us for Christmas day, and so we tried something new that I think was REALLY fun!!!  Instead of making it like a traditional Christmas, we celebrated it more like a birthday party.

Elias helped me make a pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing.  (YUM!)  Since it was just us, we halved the recipe and only made one layer.

The 1 candle just happened to be the only one we had in the house that would work on a cake.  But hey, Jesus is God's one and only Son, not to mention He's just #1.  So it works.

Then we decorated with balloons and streamers!

The balloons looked pretty awesome when the fan was spinning!  On the back wall is Elias' Christmas-themed artwork, some from school and some we did at home.

We lit a candle and sang happy birthday to Jesus!

Then, instead of giving gifts to each other, we chose various missions and ministries, and we gave donations as our gifts to Jesus, since He is the Birthday Boy after all!

It was really a lot of fun, and the birthday party atmosphere really resonated with Elias.  There was absolutely no confusion at all about what we were celebrating and why.  Happy Birthday, Jesus!!!

Family Portraits

We also got some family portraits taken, and those turned out great too!  Most of you will see the first one in our Christmas card.

Elias being a ham.

My sweetheart & me

See Elias' portraits from the same session here.

3-1/2 Year Portraits

Since I totally dropped the ball on getting 3-year portraits of Elias, we got some at 3.5 instead!  Worked out well to get family portraits for our Christmas cards at the same time - see this post for those.  :)  Here's my precious buddy at 3.5!  (Click to enlarge.)

We had to get at least one shot with Mrs. B - the love of his life.  :)