Christmas Day 2015 on the Farm

We had an earlier start than we hoped for...but it wouldn't be Christmas morning with kiddos if you didn't get up at the butt crack of dawn (or 6:15am).  While it was early I am so glad that we had all that extra time to celebrate together.  

I grammed this photo on Christmas Eve with Ellie's big Christmas present being a bike...that girl has been asking for a bike since the summer and we were so excited to give it to her!  

When she woke up she came into our room for some milk and a few snuggles while Thomas started the water for our coffee. She I couldn't handle the excitement any longer so we decided that it was time to start Christmas Morning. I got a video of Ellie seeing her bike and running to it...holy moly is it adorable, I shared a short clip on IG (follow along here) and the full video is on FB.  The reaction we got out of her was priceless and the sheer joy she had about her bike "I lub my bike too much!!" was perfect.

After the excitement of the the bike wore off a bit she wanted to play with her monorail and then we opened stockings.  Our Santa is always helping us out with our dental hygiene and brings toothpaste and toothbrushes every year!  This year he did great by picking out a Doc McStuffins toothbrush!  Unfortunately most of Thomas stocking stuffers fell out of the sleigh on the way to our house and Santa promised he would send them in the mail....Ellie also got a super cute necklace, a watch (she is obsessed) and some Shopkins.

Her birthmom sent a gift and so we opened that first...she was so excited and we were sure to take lots of pictures. 

She got the Little People Princess Garden Party and just loves them.  She is really into her toys kissing lately...so Cinderella and her Prince got to lock lips many times ;)

After our Coffee was ready (we enjoyed it in our Disneyland Parks mugs from Starbucks) we took a family photo in our matching jams, I think I love this idea of matching jams for Christmas and think we will have to do it again next year!!

Once all the presents were opened I got started on Breakfast: Eggs Benedict.  Since I am not a ham person we had our with bacon and one of our two remaining chickens came out of retirement the week before Christmas and blessed us with fresh eggs!!!  The timing couldn't have been any better since I read the fresher the egg the easier to poach.  I used this recipe for the Hollandaise sauce and it was so easy and so good...I can totally see myself making these more often!

Then we volunteered to make some of the treats for Christmas Dinner and you can never be too careful when baking, so Ellie had to sport her new helmet ;)  We made peanut butter blossoms (some with chocolate and some with jam...I prefer the jam) and rice crispy treats.  Ellie was a fantastic little helper and I am determined to let her help me more in the kitchen.

During Ellie's nap I went out to spend time with my other favorite girl, Ragtime.  Spending Christmas Day with my horses has been a tradition a better part of my life and I plan to continue on.  In all honesty I haven't spent much time with this girl in a while so we just took it slow and worked on building trust together.  If felt so good to just get out there and put my horsemanship skills to work and I really do miss being out there every day (except the rain....

Once Ellie woke up from her nap we got her ready and made our way to Nanny and Papa's for Christmas Dinner.  Unfortunately part of the family was unable to attend because they got plagued Christmas Morning with the FLU!! talk about a a bummer of a holiday!  We had a great time with our family and enjoyed a delicious meal of Prime Rib and all the goodies - Ellie loved the meat and the beans, but the rice crispy treats were her favorite ;) I guess she has a sweet tooth afterall!

We have been encouraging her love of Bitty Baby and Nanny got her the best present...a carrier for Bitty!! now Ellie will get to be like Mama, since babywearing is something I love to do!

She also got a new pair of slippers and thoroughly enjoys jumping off the ledge into the living room...

She also was able to add to her Little People collection with Mickey and Minnie Mouse houses!! So totally cute, they remind me of Toon Town!

We really had a great day for Christmas and just are so blessed with this life we have.  I hope y'all had the best Christmas to date and that you were surrounded by those you love!!

♥ Ashley