The Abla Family Updates: It's Christmas season once again!

Oh how I love this time of year! We kick started our Christmas season with a date for Isabella & I to go see the Nutcracker. We would have preferred to go see the OKC Ballet production but it was going to be when we'd be out of town on our cruise. So the only one I could find was one put on in Norman by the Norman Ballet Company. Little did we know, it wasn't actually the traditional Nutcracker story- it was one set in territorial Oklahoma called the Oklahoma Nutcracker (didn't clue into that!). It was different. The highlight was the 2 guest ballet dancers from the Tulsa Ballet (who are originally from Romania) who did an amazing job. Before the ballet, we went to eat brunch at La Baguette and enjoyed some tea (none of the tea restaurants are open on Sundays! Had to make do.) Mike and Jackson had a date too... can't remember what they did though!!

Then soon after, our Elf on the Shelf made his return and we all enjoyed a fun little welcome back breakfast that he set up for us. We also set up our tree and other decorations and I wrapped all our Christmas books. The books are stored with our Christmas decorations and every year we wrap them, letting the kids open 1-2 books a night to read together. This is our countdown to Christmas and the kids REALLY love it. We try to buy 2 books every year to add to our stash, a secular story and a book about Jesus' birth. Somehow though, we have ended up with several Night Before Christmas stories!!

We also had a fun time decorating our Christmas cookies! I'm also including some of the funny things our elf, Tommy, did this year. (For those who do not know, he is sent by Santa to keep an eye on the kids. Every night he goes to the north pole to report to Santa & then comes back to perch on a different spot. There were a few times this year that he didn't move. And we had to find remedies for him... fairy dust (or something sparkly anyway) was sent and thankfully that helped him! ;o) Below is also a picture of the kids w/ the Polliard kids downtown after our family photo shoot. Devon had some really large Christmas bulbs out in front of their building.

And here are our cute Christmas card pictures that my sister Jennifer took...

And here is what was on the other side of our Christmas card this year... I got some awesome inspiration from pinterest & melded a few ideas together from there to create. I'm really liking this style of Christmas letter & might do some version of it every year!

Isabella had her winter ballet recital and did a really great job. We all enjoyed watching her on stage. (Thanks to my mom for the pics... my camera does not zoom well at all come to find out!)