Darcy's First Christmas

Dressing for Christmas eve (too many outfits for just one day)!

"Oh my, don't I look cute?"

Waiting for Santa Claus

Christmas morning!!

Me and Darcy in our Christmas headgear

Tony borrowing the baby's hat

A serious pile of presents for someone so little!

Logan comes in for a holiday smooch/sniff/snort

"seriously guys, do I have to wear this hat all day?"

Darcy's beach drum set

She was actually really into the stuff we showed her...

...until she had enough!

Snugglin with my girl

My girl snugglin with her girl

Awesome tummy time mat with a lazy susan thing - look at the pretty baby in the mirror!

Watch me spin!!!

We had a very nice Christmas this morning, Darcy slept from about 10pm to about 630am, ate, and then went back to sleep. While she was taking her morning nap, we opened our Christmas presents and made coffee and cinnamon buns, yum! Once she got up, we busted into her presents. She was actually pretty interested in them, I was kind of surprised. But clearly she got the right stuff to be so interactive with it all!! She spent a good part of the day with Daddy, watching his new DVDs and taking good Christmas naps.

Cutie in her swing

First day of "school"

Darcy got to go to her daycare early last week, because I had a big "end of year what's going on" meeting at work to attend. I think she had a great day.

On her way to her first day of "school" - they don't call it a daycare anymore!

Daddy coming to pick Darcy up

Worn out girl!

First Snow!

Now this is an unusual sight for Tennessee in December - a real snowfall. On Thursday night, the drizzle turned to freezing rain, then suddenly, there was an inch of snow on the ground, trees, everything. I took as many pictures as I could during the early evening when it started, and then caught some the next morning as it started to melt. I'd say we ended up with almost 2 inches of good wintery stuff. No fun for driving, but it was sooo beautiful. Almost like an early white Christmas.

Logan is NOT a fan of the snow - "let me back inside!!!"

Darcy inside looking at the Christmas tree, Tony wasn't home yet. See the snow on the picnic table outside?

Tony arrived and we bundled her up to go out in her first snow!

She was more fascinated with being outside at night than with the snow I think!

It is definitely too late to bring my herb garden inside, don't you think?

Early the next morning

Visit to Santa

Darcy enjoyed meeting Santa and letting him know that she has been a very good girl and she would like a Red Rider BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time for Christmas. He told her she'd shoot her eye out.

She was a little sleepy while we were getting her set up, but still pretty happy. Then the genius helper elf BLEW in her face - are there any babies out there who would smile at that?!? Seriously, I can't believe that they were making the older kids use peppermint hand sanitizer before they could climb onto Santa's lap, but they blow their Food Court scented breath at a baby's face? It certainly wouldn't make me smile (it's flu season, people!!) but Darcy definitely doesn't like the old "blow-in-my-face" trick, it makes her scream bloody murder. So things went downhill rapidly from there. We got some cute pics of her in her snowman dress though, before the face-melting screaming started.

Santa assures me that he will bring me a good night's sleep. We'll see if that fat old elf lives up to his word.

Decorating the House

This year, Darcy helped me with the annual "drag out the Christmas junk and swear you aren't going to put up as much stuff as last year and end up putting out even more" decorating party. I swear, every year, I say I'm just pulling down the tree and ornaments, and I end up dragging down everything and pulling it all out with non-Grinchy glee worthy of all the Whos down in Whoville. But it was worth it, I love our little nativity scene, the wreaths, the stockings, the whole bit. And, I LOVE the pre-lit tree I splurged on last year. Soooo easy to put up. It made me much more willing to drag out the rest of the stuff. The inside of our house just screams holiday, I love it. Here are the action shots.

She was a big fan of the headgear portion of the event - don't worry, Santa will be starting a trust to pay for her future therapy bills.

Baby's first (sleepy) Christmas

Oops! At least she's happy I woke her.

Please notice the little girl reindeer top, we dress for decorating here.

In full Christmas spirit

Logan dresses for decorating too

She was really interested in the tree once we had it lit - I got lots of coos and fun talky noises out of her.

The finished, but messy, Christmas room - bring on the presents!

Winter is Here

It's been chilly in Nashville recently, flurries and blowing winds. Of course, I LOVE it, love winter, love cold, love snow. Bring it on. Hate summer sun and heat, yuck. Given that my daughter has my same pale complexion, I'm guessing she's going to be a winter lover too. She will if we have anything to do with it at least! We are just too pale for the beach. Next year, hopefully we'll have her out on the ski slopes, although she'll still be too young to do anything but tromp around and maybe stand between our legs for a few feet of skiing on the bunny trail. It's so much easier to learn when you are little, I was the oldest of my siblings to learn and I think I was all of six years old. My brother learned even younger than that, and you'd think he was born skiing, it's as easy as walking to him. Actually, if you've ever seen him walk, he looks much more graceful on skis! (Sorry Dan!)

So for our grocery trip today, I got her all set up in her first winter parka and stylishly warm pink leather & sheepskin boots from NZ. She was quite happy being out in the weather, cooing and laughing. It was very warming to see. I carried her around the store and through the parking lot in the baby bjorn, her little arms and legs sticking out waving around at everyone. At one point, all I could think of was the movie A Christmas Story - "I can't put my arms down!!" It actually made the shopping pretty easy, I had 2 free hands and a bunch of people coming over to look at the baby and help me fill & empty the cart.

Winter Car Nap - there is nothing better!

Snuggly Warm & Cozy

Let It Snow!!