After a Little Bribery

After weeks of begging, explaining, promising and then finally a little bit of bribery we convinced Gabrielle to allow me to change out her earrings. From the time she had her ears pierced she talked and asked about the day she could wear new earrings but when the day finally came and I started to pull on the backing of the existing earring she decided being able to change her earrings was not all that important. She was terrified it was going to hurt all over again and refused to let anyone get their hands near her ears. GrandDad even begged her tonight to have new earrings in by next week when he comes to visit for Christmas.

I'm not sure what exactly did the trick - promising to not pull too hard, promising a present - but she finally allowed me to change out her earrings. After I took the first one out she cried. I'm not sure why. It certainly didn't hurt but I guess I had to pull harder than she thought I should. But once we put the near earring in - a gold sea turtle - her face lit up, she started clapping with excitement and was thrilled.

After both earrings had been changed she got to open her surprise and was even more ecstatic. She finally got her stuffed Rudolph she has wanted since last Christmas. Rudolph is probably her favorite Christmas "character" and she talks about him nonstop. She is thrilled to finally have her very own little Rudolph.

From My Little Sunbeams

Thank goodness the earring anxiety issue is dealt with, done and over!!!

The Cutest Lil' Donkey You Ever Did See!

This past Sunday was our church Children's Christmas Cantata. Gabrielle was old enough this year to join the Children's choir and has LOVED it! For the Christmas cantata, the little ones were to dress like animals. She wanted to be a brown horse. After much difficulty finding a plain brown sweatshirt and pants we convinced her to be the very important gray donkey. After all, without the donkey poor Mary would have had to walk all the way to Bethlehem.

After we (my mom did the majority of the work) finished the costume, Gabrielle could not have been more proud - or cuter in my opinion!

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

And here she is with her best friend, Lilly, also a horse.

From My Little Sunbeams

More Christmas Decor

Finally! Finally I finished one of the craft projects I had hoped to finish up last week. My first attempt at it just was not turning out the way I wanted so I ended up basically re-doing it. My friend Janie bought a handmade garland for her kitchen window. I can't remember the exact phrase of her garland now but it was squares of stamped letters that spelled out "joy" or "noel" or something of that sort. I loved it and have thought about it ever since. I decided I would try my hand at making my own and here is the result.

From My Little Sunbeams

As usual I went a little overboard and ended up making four different words and hung them throughout the house. The above "peace" is on our living room mantle.

In our kitchen:

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Gabrielle's room (because she informed Ed the other day she did not have enough decorations in her room):

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Samantha's room (because we have to keep things fair and even you know):

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And now for just a cute little photo of the girls on the couch snuggled with their Christmas blankies:

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Gabrielle made some new decorations for outside today as well - birdseed ornaments! We found this idea in a Christmas craft book I bought for her from the school's Scholastic book order. It is Angelina Ballerina which Gabrielle adores. This particularly craft was so simple and a lot of fun. We're just waiting for everything to dry and harden enough to hang outside tomorrow on the porch for our little birdie friends.

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

So Awesome!

One of my best Christmas memories growing up was taking our traditional rides to look at Christmas lights. I love it and insist on keeping the tradition going with my girls as well. Actually, even when it was just me and Ed, I made him take me for a ride just to look at lights. Ha! But now with the girls it is even more fun to see and hear their reactions, especially Gabrielle's.

Last week I decided to do a search to find some really cool must-see kind of local light displays and found Lake Myra Christmas. Tonight Ed and I surprised the girls after dinner to take them. It was a bit of a (sketchy) drive for us but it was well worth it. As we made our last turn into the neighborhood Gabrielle's face lit up with this beaming smile. She was speechless and in complete awe.

From My Little Sunbeams

I took a couple of pictures that do not do the display any kind of justice so you'll just have to believe me when I say the show was so awesome! The display is a 30-minute "show" of over 180,000 lights - yes, OVER 180,000 lights - set to music. The side of the road is taped off so you can either get out of your car and sit/stand to watch the show or you can tune your radio to the specified station and hear/see the show from your car. We started outside but the girls were shivering and I didn't feel like we had them bundled enough so we finished the show from the car.

From My Little Sunbeams

If you like Christmas lights definitely check out this website and definitely consider the drive out to see the display in person. I personally have never seen anything like it (except on HGTV maybe). It was so great and the girls LOVED it! And I should mention in one of the photos above the white specks that look like snow - it really is snow! They have an actual snow machine for part of the show!!!