E.J.'s Stocking

You may recall that for Ellie's first Christmas, I cross-stitched a stocking for her. I had originally planned to make her a birth record, but decided a stocking was a more practical project, and something that could still be a treasured keepsake. It was a true labor of love (much of it was stitched during our post-Hurricane Sandy black-out), and I hope she will think it's pretty special someday.

Of course, when E.J. was born, I knew I wanted to do the same for him. I searched for and selected a pattern I liked before he was born, and started working on it during his two-week hospital stay. I have been working on it as much as possible since then and finally finished it up last week. Once again, my mom was kind enough to help me with all the assembly, because I am a pretty lousy (or at least, inexperienced) seamstress and the idea of possibly messing up the assembly of something I had already spent so much time on made me twitch. Thanks, Mom!

Care to see the finished product?

E.J.'s stocking!

I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

One of my favorite details  of E.J.'s stocking is the lining. Ellie's stocking is lined with fabric leftover from a homecoming dress my mom made for my sister, but for E.J.'s, I planned ahead and opted to select a more fun Christmas print to line the inside of his stocking:

Festive!

I love seeing both of those stockings hanging side-by-side on our mantle this year. I hope that Ellie and E.J. treasure them and know how much I wanted to make something special for them. Those stockings were made with love! Cheesy, but oh-so-true.

Handmade stockings for my sweet babies!

San Marco Holiday Magic

This past Saturday we went to yet another fun holiday festival and run in Jacksonville: the San Marco Holiday Magic festival in San Marco Square, and the Festival of Lights 5k.

Given that this holiday fun was basically in our own backyard, we knew we had to take part. My mom was visiting for the weekend so she was able to join us. Eric had a TFA function all day, but got home just in time to get ready and walk out to the square with us. When we got there, we dove right into what was probably Ellie's favorite attraction of the evening: the petting zoo!

Ellie and a goat

She particularly liked these ducks!

Silly pig!

Gee, I hope she doesn't pet that goat too roughly.

They had all sorts of other things to do, too: a bunch of inflatable bounce house type things (we didn't mess with those), horse-drawn carriage rides (we just admired the horses), Santa Claus (we already met him this year, so no need here), a train to ride (nope, skipped that, too), and entertainment like stilt walkers out in the crowd.

That is one tall Santa!

Hanging out by the horses

It may sound like we didn't do much, but the real action happened after Eric left us to run his race. That was when we found the freebies: chocolate-covered popcorn, regular popcorn, candy canes, Firehouse subs, balloons, glow bracelets. We cleaned up!

Here's Ellie chowing down on popcorn, wearing her glow bracelet, with her balloon tied to the stroller. Hey, who is she to turn down a freebie?

While we were gorging ourselves on free food, Eric was running the Festival of Lights 5k, which left from San Marco Square and stretched around the surrounding neighborhood. The entire route was lined with luminaries and the runners were given jingle bells for their shoes. How festive! Eric ran yet another great race, his fastest 5k of his adult (post high school) life! Impressive!

Goooo, Eric!

By the time the race was over we were satisfied with all we had seen and done and were ready to get the kids home for dinner and bedtime, so we wrapped things up. Another fun Jacksonville holiday evening in the books!

E.J. approves!

Christmas in Avondale

When I left off last week, we had just enjoyed a very festive morning with the Gingerbread Man Dash and Christmas Parade in St. Augustine. But that wasn't all for that super Christmas-y day! That evening, we attended Christmas in Avondale, an event we enjoyed last year and were excited to participate in again this year. It's a fun evening on the town, with the street closed to traffic and all the local businesses staying open late to offer free food, crafts, activities, movies and other fun.

This year, we made reindeer food...

It even has sparkles in it, so when you scatter it in the yard, the reindeer will see it! Naturally.

...snacked on popcorn and watched movies while sitting on bales of hay...

This girl loves some popcorn.

Sharing!

...made a gumdrop snowflake...

Eric did a fine job of making sure Ellie didn't impale herself on a toothpick during the assembly of this craft. Way to go, Daddy!

...partied with an animatronic Santa...

She was riveted.

...visited a photobooth...

Behold! I give you: Drunk Reindeer Baby, Side Chins Elf, Steamy Glance and Eric.

...made a pipe cleaner candy cane to hang on our Christmas tree...

The tongue of concentration! That's how you know she's serious.

(She said, "I'm making a necklace for Mama! I do this all the time.")

...decorated a gingerbread cookie...

...and burned off a good bit of pre-bed energy after a long and very fun day.

He's just always so jolly.

Ellie is a big fan of running in circles these days. Mama? Not so much.

We had a great evening!

St. Augustine Christmas Parade

When we finished the Gingerbread Man Dash I posted about yesterday, we weren't through having holiday fun in St. Augustine. The town was holding its Christmas Parade that same morning, so we left the race and went downtown to scope out a spot to watch.

We drove around a bit trying to find parking, but eventually found a spot and made our way to the parade route. The parade was to begin at 10:00 and we got to our spot (right on the curb!) around 10:20, which was perfect timing. We had just enough time to get settled and snap a couple of pictures before the parade reached us.

Ready for the parade!

Parade time!

The parade was great fun. It was quite an eclectic assortment of participants, from pirates to princesses to bunnies to tigers, accompanied by nativity scenes, marching bands, local businesses, decked out cars, dressed-up dogs and even Storm Troopers in kilts. Something for everyone!

One of several nativity scenes we saw

Tiger!

Marching choir

Tiny horse

One of many pirates!

Dogs!

Princesses

Rudolphadillo, naturally

Balloon snowman

One of the marching bands

Storm Troopers!

Nothing says Christmas quite like Darth Vader in a kilt and a Santa hat

The Grinch

Decked out cars

The kids, of course, were as cute as buttons, and seemed to really enjoy themselves. E.J. happily bounced up and down for...well, everything, because E.J. loves everything. Ellie took a little longer to warm up to the whole thing but hey, toss a couple of lollipops her way and she's yours. We had a great time!

Ellie at the beginning of the parade...

...and Ellie with a lollipop.

E.J. trying to taste his first candy cane

Sometimes things got a little too loud.

Pretty Ellie watching the parade

Trademark E.J. joy!

This faaaaaaaace. It's too much.

We didn't stay until the end of the parade, so I'm not sure how long it really went on, but we caught about an hour's worth of marching fun before calling it quits in favor of beating traffic to get home for lunch and naptime. We needed to rest and recharge, because the day's holiday fun wasn't over yet!

Gingerbread Man Dash

This past Saturday was a holiday fun-filled day for us, starting with the Gingerbread Man Dash in St. Augustine. Ellie ran in the Kids' Fun Run and Eric ran the 5k.

We had to get an early start, as Ellie's race was set to start at 8:00 a.m. and we live a half hour away, plus had to pick up both of their numbers. Both kids handled the early wake-up call remarkably well! We all got decked out in our Christmas spirit finery and hit the road a little after 7:00 a.m., arriving in St. Augustine about 20 minutes before Ellie's race.

Ready for a day of festive fun!

When we arrived we picked up the race packets and got ready for Ellie's run. She and her daddy looked so cute in their running clothes with their numbers!

The first of many races they'll run together, I hope!

The concept for the kids' run was to actually chase a gingerbread man! They had a runner in costume who ran along with the kids. Each child runner was given a set of red circle stickers, and their goal was to chase down the gingerbread man and put stickers on him to represent "bites." Ellie never really got to the gingerbread man part, but it was a cute concept.

Kids "biting" the gingerbread man

Ellie and Eric got a bit of a late start (my fault for being in the wrong spot), but they were off at the back of the pack!

There they go!

The race stretched for two laps around the lake at the World Golf Hall of Fame. Ellie didn't make it too far before hitching a ride. It's possible she was a little spooked by all the craziness, even though they were at the back of the group.

How cute are these two?

By the time they made their second lap and were approaching the finish line, Eric was able to convince her to run a bit more to finish things off.

Here they come!

And then she was awarded her very first race medal, and given a gingerbread cookie to boot!

Way to go, Ellie!

She is PSYCHED.

Also, festively adorned pigtails might be my new favorite thing.

We posed for photos with mixed success.

Apparently she was unhappy with her finish time. She wanted a PR!

Posing with the Jacksonville Sharks mascot

We didn't have long to wait before Eric had to head off for his 5k. While he ran, Ellie, E.J. and I hung out by the finish line and watched the 10k and 5k runners. Ellie kept asking, "Is it time for Daddy yet?"

Watching the runners

She didn't have long to wait because Eric was FAST! So fast, in fact, that I wasn't ready with the camera when he came by! I managed to get it up to snap one quick picture.

Look at him, even giving a thumbs up like it's nothing.

As it turns out, Eric won his age group! Way to go, Eric!

Great job, runners!

Then we posed for another photo...

Post-race photo op

...and refueld a little bit.

Apple, sandwich, and smoothie. Runners can't live on gingerbread cookies alone.

Great job, W. family runners!

It should be noted that the next time Eric and Ellie run together will be in January: Ellie will be running in the Disney Kids' Run, and Eric will be running the Disney MARATHON! Exciting stuff!