Five years ago, we switched the kids' bedrooms around. The girls moved in together and had a Frozen themed room, and Joey got his own room with a sports theme. Over the past couple of years, the girls slowly got rid of more and more of their Frozen decorations. Then their bedspreads started to wear thin and rip, so I recommended that they might want to ask for new bedding for Christmas. The girls agreed, and scoured the internet looking for cute matching comforters. 

They finally found these light turquoise ones, and we sent the link to Grandma. 

I also sent Grandma a link for new baskets for their cube organizer to update the look.

There was a lot of turquoise in their room, and I wasn't sure what color we should add to give a pop of something different. Then Hannah and I were in Hobby Lobby after Christmas and saw these cute streamers. We took it home to show Ellie, and she loved it.

Once we knew we wanted to go with coral and turquoise, we returned the pink bean bag the girls got for Christmas, and I found this perfect coral one. The girls are so excited about their new cozy reading nook. I caught Ellie reading there the other day. It was so sweet.

Last but not least, Andy put up these floating shelves in the girls' room. My mom got Ellie that cute unicorn sign for her birthday. I found the sisters sign at Hobby Lobby and thought it was perfect for them. We're so happy with how the girls' room turned out.

Sweet Ellie turned 8 on the fourth day of Christmas (we're a little obsessed with "The Twelve Days of Christmas" around here).

Ellie kept this birthday headband from her last birthday in Philadelphia and was very excited to wear it again!

Although it's not ideal, it works out well that Ellie gets her family birthday party for her real birthday and her friend birthday party for her half birthday.  My mom made Ellie this special Oreo cake.

All my family was there and Andy's parents came over too, which was so fun.

We mostly do presents for Ellie the summer, but she did have a couple of things to open. Apparently she was thrilled.

Have I mentioned that Ben kind of likes Andy. This picture cracks me up.

More games of "Trash."

Cousin cuddles.

One of the things we wanted to do when everyone was in town, was to get out all of our Rock Band/karaoke stuff.

It was so fun! 

We love the "party mode" where you can follow the choreography.

The adults got in on the fun too, especially when we did The Beatles Rock Band.

It helps to have some legit musicians in the house.

That night Lauren and Ben spent the night with us again. Then we all met at my parents' house for church the next morning. The Gallos had to leave for the airport in the early afternoon, so we snuck in a trip to In-N-Out before they left.

When Ellie had her had on it reminded me of a picture I had just seen of her from when she was a baby. We pulled it up on my phone and took a picture of the two Ellies.

We were sad to see the Gallos go, but very thrilled that we had one extra day with just Benjamin and Christina (Timmy drove up to Orange County to be with Jill after Ellie's birthday party). We met up with Benjamin, Christina and my parents for a fun hike through a slot canyon.

The rest of the day we hung out, watched a movie and played games. After dinner we played a few rounds of C'thulhu.

Benjamin and Christina left early the next morning, so that concluded our wonderful 2019 Krause Christmas.

After Christmas, we still had lots of fun family activities planned. My mom organized a Christmas craft.

 Christmas morning finally arrived! 

Christmas Eve morning, Andy organized a group of people to go see the new Star Wars movie. Not the best picture, but I'll take it! Ellie wasn't interested in seeing Star Wars so we stayed home. She ended up spending the whole morning with our neighbor Cameron, so I spent a lovely, quiet morning baking cookies.

Sunday after church, the Gallos came over.

It was our year for "Krause Christmas" this year. Rachel and her family got into town about a week before Christmas, and my kids were still in school. Lucky for me, I still got to hang out with them while my kids were in school.

One morning the Gallos, my mom and I went on a little hike in Carlsbad. We started at the beach and ended up by the lagoon.