More with the Christmas Recap: Texas

On Christmas day we flew to Texas to spend some time with Elizabeth's family. We kicked off the 26th with gift opening and dinner at Robert's house, then went on a Christmas Train ride through the bayou in Jefferson. It was sort of crazy riding a train through the dark so near all the water. In some places the water was right up against the tracks. But it was pretty to see the lights reflected among the trees in the water, even if it was hard to get pictures of them.

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

This is Eliana's new kitty. Her name is Black and White Kitty, and she replaces Little Kitty. She was unable to go anywhere without Little Kitty for several months, even after the stuffing was all out of her middle and her tail had been pulled off! I wasn't sure how she'd react to a new kitty, but as you can see, she loves it! In fact, the next day she threw Little Kitty on the floor and said, "I don't like THAT kitty any more!" and proceeded to snuggle with Black and White Kitty. We have a new favorite!

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

This is Eliana's reaction to anything sparkly. She LOVES shiny things! In this case it is a set of shirts with sparkly designs on them. =D

Eliana's first real experience with Santa Claus happened on our trip to Texas, as we were loading into the train. We have taught her that Santa is not real, so her reaction was priceless...

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

"Mommy? Who IS this crazy man dressed up like Santa Claus??"

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

"Okay, I'll try to look natural for the picture.... I won't relax my fist, though!"

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

"Alright... I'll give you as much of a smile as I can muster, but I still don't trust this guy!"

The train ride itself was much better!

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

We managed to sneak in a few family pictures before the week was over, too!

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

From Christmas in Texas with Bitikofers

And with that I say, "Merry Christmas" and call our updates done! =D

Christmas Recap

Okay... so now that we're almost a month and a half past Christmas, perhaps it's time to put up some pictures, eh?

We spent Christmas Eve day with Leif's family in Roundup, including his 104 year old great aunt Lillian.

Eliana chatted with her and helped her open her gifts.

Then we opened gifts with the family. Eliana got quite a few gifts, including a pretty dress from South America from Uncle Eric, and some toys, and a volcano science kit, and some markers / art supplies. We were all very blessed to get to spend some time with the Wickland family before heading home that afternoon.

The next morning was Christmas, and we had our own gift opening, followed by a big breakfast and a trip to the airport to fly to Texas! I think those pictures will have to be in another post, though, so this one doesn't get too long!

'Twas the night before Christmas

Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas Eve! Here are some pictures of our place this Christmas season!

Snowflakes!

Ellie and I made snowflakes a week or two ago, and it is so fun to see them hanging in the window against the sunrise in the morning. I think they're beautiful! She was even able to make a couple of them all by herself! Here she is hard at work:

And the finished snowflake:

Christmas Pictures

Tonight, before we put Ellie in bed, she got to put on her pretty Christmas dress and have her picture taken in front of the Christmas tree. She was pretty excited to sit there and have her picture taken this year, and was mostly cooperative. That's more than we can say for the last couple years! It was sweet, and I'm looking forward to getting the pictures from Costco tomorrow. =D In the meantime, here's one of the reject pictures, before we got all the lighting figured out... she's still pretty adorable, eh?

And when I went over to fix her hair in between shots (because there was much silliness involved, which lead to messed up hair!) we paused for a smile while Leif clicked a shot. Just a sweet little impromptu photo, but I love it!

Hope you all are having a great week before Christmas! Leif is officially off work for a couple weeks, so we are enjoying having him home!

Christmas Lights

Last night just before bed I put Ellie in her pajamas and slippers, got her some chocolate milk and two cookies, wrapped her in a blanket all snug in the car, and put on some Christmas music. Then we went out to look look at Christmas lights in our neighborhood.

We drove around, ooh-ing and aaah-ing, noticing which houses had LOTS of lights, and which only had a few. We voted on which houses were decorated the "best" and had winners in two categories: the MOST lights, and the prettiest/classiest. Here they are...

We stayed close to home, just driving around River Rock, but we had a very nice time. By the time we pulled up the driveway into the garage at home again, this is what Ellie looked like:

Sound asleep, with cookie smeared on her face. I love it.

Christmas Stroll 2009

Slippery sidewalks, falling snowflakes, people shuffling downtown...
Yummy food, but it's too cold to eat....
(sung to the tune of Silver Bells)

That pretty much sums up the Stroll last night! It was 14 degrees out, but people still showed up to walk the streets of downtown Bozeman and enjoy celebrating the holiday season with food.

We stopped first in a little place called La Tinga for some Mexican food. It was pretty good. We had a few little tacos (pork, steak, and chicken/potato) and warmed up a smidge before going on our way. Ellie expressed her dislike for the crowds by informing me that there were "too many people in this place!!"

At La Tinga, the lady gave Ellie a popsicle that she tried to devour, despite the cold. She did a pretty good job eating it with gloved hands, but it made her cold, so we made another stop to warm up. This time we stopped into F11, Leif's favorite downtown camera shop. Ellie finished off her popsicle and Leif played with camera equipment, using me as his subject.

After a bit of a warm up, we headed back down Main Street. Due to the cold and the slippery sidewalks, Leif ended up carrying Ellie pretty much the entire time.

(Aside from the snot that I'm going to ask Leif to photoshop off Ellie's face, this is my favorite picture from the evening!)

More walking, more cold, and another stop by a booth for some fry bread left us needing another warm place to stop in... so we stopped by Bangtail's new location on Main Street! For those of you who have visited Bozeman, you might recognize the building as the "horse" building. Of course, I live here and when Leif mentioned that they moved into the horse building I had no idea what he was talking about. Ha ha! But we stopped in there and looked at skis for Ellie (because bike shops are also ski shops around here) and finished off the fry bread and warmed up.



After Bangtail we decided it was time for us to head back down Main Street to the car. It was just too cold and too late to make the full loop. So we shuffled back down the street, stopping once to buy a pulled pork sandwich (which I scarfed as we walked - I've never eaten a hamburger bun that cold before!!) and once to gawk at the S'mores stand. How do you make S'mores in sub-freezing temps? Like this!

Our last stop before hitting the car was at The Leaf and Bean, a local coffee / tea house. We ordered some coffee for Leif, Montana Gold tea for me, and some hot lemonade for Eliana. It was too hot to drink while we were in there, but made for a nice way to warm our hands!

Despite the cold, I was glad to get to attend the Christmas Stroll this year. 2 years ago I was in Texas, last year I was sick... I was not going to miss it this year! And once again, I'm glad we didn't! It's one of the Bozeman traditions worth attending.