For the Holidays

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already here! I can't believe that December is just around the corner. Ella turned 3 this month, and we had a wonderful party. Unfortunately, our camera broke and no one one at our party brought one. So, it will just have to be a party that lives on in our memories. I thought to celebrate the holidays, I would share a few Ella stories.

#1 - For her birthday, Ella received a gift card to Target. And, as much as I wanted to spend it on something practical, we decided to take her to Target and let her pick out whatever she wanted. For a few weeks now, she's been telling me that she needs her own laptop (I guess that Brad and I spend too much time on ours!), and so I brought them to her attention in the toy department. Immediately, she decided that she wanted one, so we took it up to the register and she bought it with her own "money". Ella loves her laptop, and for several days we would be doing things around the house and Ella would randomly yell, "I'll be right back, I've got to check my e-mail." She would run into the living room and spend a few minute on the computer. Today, however, I was looking for a way to distract her in the car and asked if she needed to check her e-mail on her laptop, she said to me, "My laptop doesn't have any e-mail, just games." Very astute!

#2 - One of Brad's favorite things to do when we're taking a few moments to rest on the couch as a family is to yell "Dogpile" and we all pile on. Ella has also developed a liking for the game. This week, as we were sitting on the couch, she decided that we needed a few rounds of Dogpile. After we had done that a few times, she yells, "Duckpile!" Brad asked her what that was, and she proceeded to show us: for the game of duckpile, you pile on top of each other, but with everyone on their backs, facing the ceiling. Ella loves this game even more than dogpile, and proceeded to yell "Duckpile!" over and over again until we told her we couldn't take any more of the piling. We'll see if it, too, becomes a family favorite.

Hope that you have a wonderful holiday!