The Christmas presents were open and bows and wrapping paper laid neatly on the floor. The fire place was burning and all were nestled close by. All was quiet throughout.....

Oh...you thought I was going to write a traditional Christmas story, huh? :) Not at the Ellavsky house on Dec. 25th 2005. The story really goes like this....

After all of the million of presents were open, I felt like I was in the middle of an Indy 500. Not only were our kids running around the house like chickens with their heads cut off (sorry for the analogy..but, it is a southern expression my family has always used). We also had a beautiful Ukrainian child who spoke Russian and who knew very little English and she too was running around, but, we couldn't understand a word she was saying. Well, for one exception...she loved the word "NO!!!" :)



Then, truly all did become quiet that night when it was almost time to go to sleep. With a sigh of relief, my husband and I were able to drop our tired bodies on the couch. Unbenownst to us, we thought the girls were brushing their teeth and and the big girls were helping baby sis get ready for bed.

Well, they were in a way.... they were brushing their teeth, their face, and their hair with their new found makeup that they had all gotten that day. Alyona didn't know much about makeup, but, she did know that she liked it. So, she proceeded to put every drop of every thing in the 'girlie makeup case" on herself, Sophia and Maya and down the stairs they came. Here is a 7 1/2 year old, a 5 1/2 year old, and a 2 1/2 year old at 10:00 at night covered from head to toe in glitter and glam and boy were they proud!

Here I am lying on my husbands shoulder with my eyes closed, hair sideways and drool coming down my mouth from the extreme tiredness from the non-stop week we had had. Blake is staring at the ceiling as if he is suddenly going to find out the meaning to life. So when we first see them, my first thought was "What in the world were you thinking?" but, then taking one look at baby Maya (well, not a baby..she is 2 1/2) with her hair straight up in the air with the hair glitter gel that Alyona put in it and the bright red lipstick covered all over her lips and cheeks....we immediately started to laugh.

Sometimes you just have to take that Norman Rockwell picture out to the curb and put it with the trash. Because what is left behind is so much better.