A Wonderful Christmas


I hope you all had the most wonderful Christmas. We had a fabulous day with family. Usually Amelia goes right to bed on Christmas Eve, but this year I think the excitement just got to her. She went to bed but couldn't fall asleep for hours. Santa came and left her some great things. Christmas morning we packed up all of our gifts and took them over to my grandma's to open with my family. I love how, even though we are all adults now, my sisters and I still all want to spend Christmas morning together. We went to my aunt and uncle's house later in the day and had an amazing dinner. We had a gift exchange and played games. It was an incredible day. The ornament pictured below (the third photo) was our gift from Amelia. She made it for us at school. It was my favorite part of our tree this year. 



Ashley Elizabeth
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Elf on the Shelf Reindeer


It's that time of year when a tiny little elf dressed in red and white shows up at our home. Amelia gets so excited when Spirit comes back. I'm anxious to see what sort of mischief he will be up to this year. Our house is a lot smaller than in the past so he won't have as much room to cause trouble.

Yesterday he brought a new friend with him. Have you seen the Elf on the Shelf reindeer? He is cute. I wasn't quite sure what the story was about, but I figured Amelia would love him. We sat down tonight and read the book. It was really cute and reading it to her just made me appreciate the age she is at that much more. The book talks about how the reindeer comes with the elf, but he is different than the elf. She can snuggle him and give him love, unlike the elf who we can't touch. The book explains that on Christmas Eve, once she is asleep, the reindeer will turn into a real reindeer and leave our home to go help Santa. The little sparkle she got in her eyes when we read the story brought a smile to my face. She had to call my mom and sisters immediately to tell them about her new friend. If you are a family that has an elf visitor this time of year, you should check out the little reindeer.
This is not a sponsored post. I'm just sharing my opinion on the elf pet reindeer that is in our home this year. 
Ashley Elizabeth
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Christmas Flashback in photos


One of my favorite things to do is look at old photos. It's always enjoyable. Here are a few Christmas photos from years back.
Erica and I
Getting Christmas trees has always been a fun family event
check out our hot velvet floral dresses that blend in with my Aunt's furniture
Erica and mom
Erica and I
Grace, Santa and I
Me
Grace and I

And a photo from Amelia's first Christmas
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Ashley Elizabeth
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Christmas Trees and the Civil War


I love this time of year. We headed out Sunday to get our Christmas trees. I was supposed to downsize our tree this year since we are living in a significantly smaller home, but I sort of failed to do that. Thankfully we didn't have to bust out the chainsaw inside of the house this year to remove several feet of the tree (like last year). It fit perfectly and only takes up about 1/3 of our living room. Amelia's tree is so darling. Unfortunately this might be her final year with a real tree. Damn allergies.


How cute is she helping haul out her own tree!!

We went to the Civil War game this past weekend. It's the biggest rivalry game in Oregon college football. We cheer on Oregon State, but unfortunately the University of Oregon won. Even though it was ridiculously cold out and my coat and seat got barfed on by some overly drunk guy, the night was a blast. My mom, sisters and I all went and then my cousin and his girlfriend were there as well. We rode down together, went out to dinner and had a great time!



Amelia headed back to school on Monday after having 9 days off. I can't wait for her to be on Christmas break. I love having her around. This next week we will be decorating our house and doing some major crafting.

This month is an incredibly crazy one for us. Amelia has Nutcracker performances both Friday and Saturday this week and dance practice every day until then. Sunday we are doing a fun family thing which I plan to fully blog about. Oh, and my sister is getting married in less than two weeks! My baby sister is about to be a wife! Their wedding is going to be beautiful! I can't wait. So that's a quick recap of our weekend and the exciting things I'm looking forward to! 
Ashley Elizabeth
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