The Most Wonderful Time...

What a wonderful Christmas we had together! I have cherished so many moments with my daughter, family, and friends this December, it will be hard to recount them all, but I will do my best to sum up.

We put up and decorated our new tree shortly after Thanksgiving - a process that took several days and a task which consisted of many steps forward (5 ornaments up) and a few steps back (2 ornaments down). Lyla was particularly fond of the vintage Sesame Street ornaments I made sure to hang right at her eye level. They were hung and rehung all through the month.

Lyla's school had a "Family Blizzard" where they invited family to come eat chili and participate in various holiday activities. Lyla loved playing at school with Mommy, making ornaments, pinning the nose on Santa, writing a letter to Santa (ha!) and eating all kinds of sweets. She did not enjoy getting her face painted.

We took Lyla to the Grapevine Parade of Lights with my family and close friends. We bundled up in many layers and extra thick coats (because it was unTexasly cold) and brought some hot cocoa in a thermos to share. Lyla seemed to enjoy it, her favorite part being Santa at the end. She waved and waved! It was great having our family and close friends there with us!

In preparation for Christmas cards and the December portion of the annual grandma calendars, we attempted to do a mini-photo-shoot of Lyla in front of the tree. I must have snapped a-zillion pictures and managed to get ZIP that I really liked, but I guess the whole ordeal was pretty humorous. I am surprised Lyla hasn't developed a seizure disorder from all the flashes...

We took Lyla, Rain and Faryn, along with Grandma and Grandpap, to the North Pole Express. It's a vintage train that normally goes from downtown G-vine to downtown Ft. Worth, but during this time of year, they send it 15 minutes in one direction, with caroling and the whole bit, then they just head back to G-vine for a 30 minute trip, all after a 30-minute preshow complete with hot chocolate, dancing elf girls in tight clothes, etc. Lyla didn't fair so well with the pre-show. It was a little lengthy and not particularly geared toward 1-year olds and she was very anxious to see the "choo-choo." When we finally got on, she was worn out, but managed to enjoy it nonetheless. Santa made an appearance (briefly) on the train, and she was excited by that. I thought that might be evidence that she wouldn't be terrified afterward when we went to take pictures with Santa. How foolish of me! The poor girl sobbed big fat tears of sheer terror, even with Mommy and Daddy sitting with her. As Grandpap put it, though, you always have to have at least one picture of "crying with the Claus."

Christmas came around super-fast after that. Really, though, I should say "Christmases," since we shared Christmas with our families and friends at separate special times. We had "Roommate Christmas" with our close friends (dubbed so because most of these friends have been roommates at one point or another), "Quattrochi Christmas" with Luke's dad's side of the family, "Pearson Christmas" with my side of the family, and "Nonna Christmas" with Luke's mom's side. Not to mention our own Christmas! Phew!

Somewhere in the midst of all that, we managed to bake cookies with Grandma, too. Lyla enjoyed painting the sugar cookies old-school style, with colored egg yolks and paintbrushes. Mostly, she enjoyed eating them after they baked.

Lyla's favorites among her Christmas prizes this year have been her little piano that Santa brought her, her kitchen that Mommy and Daddy got her, and her dollhouse from Grandma. She seems to rotate between the three throughout the day, occasionally distracting herself with her other goodies and bringing us new books to read.

And last, but not least, here she is "performing" in her school sing-a-long show:

We hope you had a Very Merry Christmas!!
We sure did!