Cecilia's First Noel

What a whirlwind the last week has been! Our celebrating started on Christmas Eve morning, when we had Jon's Dad over for brunch. It sure was cold and icy that morning, but we were glad that Chic finally made it. He brought Cecilia a cute little dress.
In the afternoon we dressed Cecilia in her pretty Christmas dress and headed to church with my family, and then off to Ma and Pa's for the big Christmas Eve dinner. I love Christmas Eve at Ma and Pa's! It is always such a joyous gathering. Their tree is always so pretty, the food is so good, and the company is grand. It was so fun to have Cecilia there this year, especially because last year we announced that we were expecting at Christmas Eve. Cecilia got to listen to Pa read the Christmas story with all of the other kids. Cecilia's cousin Tatum had her for the grab bag and she sent a "Fortune Onesie" that says " A surprise will appear in my pants". Grandma also gave Cecilia her blanket that she has been working on for 6 months. It is beautiful, and cozy warm.


I think that Cecilia knew that Santa came on Christmas Morning, she was up and ready to go at 5:30. We opened gifts from each other. Jon gave me an Ice Cream Maker that attaches to my KitchenAid mixer, I am making Champagne sorbet for new years in it. I gave Jon some new clothes and slippers. Cecilia opened gifts from her Uncle Bill and Mike- a cute piggy bank and musical lamb. All she really cared about was the tissue paper though.


Jon's mom came over for breakfast and brought us a new toaster. This may sound silly, but we were so excited! The toaster that we got for our wedding has been nothing but problems. It was too big, it never toasted correctly, and you had to darn near break the think to get your toast out early. The new toaster is smaller and toasts as it should- perfect!


Then it was time to head up the hill (finally). We loaded up the dogs (we have been watching Daisy the lab for a friend), the baby, bags, gifts, and food and headed to my parents house. The roads were just fine until we hit Jefferson on the other side of Kenosha Pass, it was a white out- very scary! We took the back roads in through Stage Stop and made it safely. We stayed in the rest of the day, the temp with wind chill was down to -42* at times! We opened gifts with my parents, Pat, Sarah, and Petey. It was so fun to just enjoy each others company. Cecilia was spoiled this year, she got new clothes, a sippy cup, a bowl and spoon, toys, and her new seat for the table.








Nick and Megan came up on Sunday night. It was a wonderful family dinner with everyone present. Mom made a delicious prime rib- WOW, soooo yummy! The family has grown so much over the last few years, there were 10 of us around the table, enjoying being with one another. After dinner we played a mean game of Nertz, it was brutal and I think that there may have been some cheating going on, but I won't mention any names.

When we arrived home, we had yet another gift to open that was sent from Jon's Sister in Alaska. The sent cute socks for Cecilia, a votive, smoked salmon, picture frames and Chocolate. I'm a sucker for chocolate, but I hesitated a bit when I read the description of these:

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We have been so busy enjoying family and friends, shopping, home making, and celebrating.

Cecilia is getting so big. Her personality is really starting to show. She is a happy girl, and she loves to talk. She is getting so strong too. We broke out the jumper for her, and she loves it! She will sing and swing- jump around. Too cute!
She has started her nightly cereal snack. It has taken a few weeks, but she is starting to really enjoy it and eat the whole serving. We discovered very early on, that it works best if we hold her hands down, otherwise, she will try to do it herself. The cereal has definitely helped with her sleeping. She is still not sleeping through the night, but she is only waking once, and she eats and goes right back to sleep.Grandma has been down from the mountains many times to visit. She even brought Cecilia her first Christmas present: teething ladybugs. The little girl has her two bottom teeth coming in- one could say "all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth!" A consequence of these teeth has been her first ear infection :( She is feeling better now, but it was rough last week, before we took her in on Friday.
We had some excitement last week when a crane and many other big trucks and a mulcher showed up in front of the house. They came to remove the tree in the backyard of the neighbor across the street's house. Needless to say, all of the commotion and noise prevented Cecilia from taking her morning nap. It was sure fun to watch though.

Pat flew in last Friday. He even arrived in uniform! The last time Pat was home for Christmas was 2006, and he barely made it because CO was hit with three blizzards in a row. We are so excited to have him here this year, especially for C's 1st Christmas.

We went to see the Wild Boys perform their Christmas Pageant on Sunday. They are so cute. Here are two of the wise guys, Joe and Jack:

Cecilia got to meet her Cousin Keeghan for the first time. He is in town for a month to celebrate with all of us and to work a short internship before he heads back to school in TX.

Sarah came in on Sunday, along with her sister Liz, and her brothers too. She hasn't seen Cecilia since her Baptism. It is so good to see her and Pat together. We have been spending time with Sarah's family, sharing meals and watching football. The girls and I went shopping for bridesmaid dresses yesterday, we found a strong candidate. Sarah also found her wedding dress. It is gorgeous, and she found it by chance, because she didn't even intend on trying anything on. I made her try on this dress, and I am so glad that I did. No pictures of this- yet- you will have to wait till August.

Jon is off till 2010 starting on Thursday. I am so happy that he will be home with us. We are looking so forward to Cecilia's first Christmas. This holiday is so much more exciting and joyful now that she is in our world.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas, filled with cheer, joy, and gratitude.

Santa Rant

We had good intentions of introducing Cecilia to Santa yesterday. We ventured out to Colorado Mills (along with the rest of the world). We did a little shopping on the way to Santa. When we got to Santa's "house" the line was long and the signs were many. Signs stating that visiting with Santa was free, but if you wanted to take a picture with your own camera, you would have to purchase their minimum photo package of $20 to do so. BA HUMBUG!!!! Well, little commercialized elves, Merry Christmas! We will not be participating in such ridiculousness. Since when did it cost so much money to get your picture with Santa, and in this economy?!?!? The Colorado Mills Mall charges an extra fee on every purchase at every store for "community improvements", or something like that. Shouldn't that cover the cost to have Santa at the mall for a few weeks? If I wanted to buy their pictures, then the photo they take should be better than the one that I can get from my camera, and the photo should be a reasonable amount (not $20 for 2 5x7's). After all, the kid behind the camera is probably only making minimum wage and his photography training probably goes no further than "press this button, and make sure the flash goes off". So, maybe this makes us bad parents. But I don't care. I can't afford to pay $20 for a photo with Santa, and frankly, Cecilia has nothing to say to the big guy, so a free visit is kind of pointless. I'd like to think that I am a better parent for not giving in to this racket. Even though Cecilia is too young to know or care about this decision, we have set a precedent for future years. So, alas there are no photos to post of Cecilia with Santa. There probably won't be this year. It is just another reminder of what this season is really about, and that JOY can not be found in a mall.

Merry Christmas

A COLD 4 Month Dr.'s Visit

Cecilia had her four month check up yesterday. Jon was going to meet me there, so that I wouldn't have to go through shots by myself, but the battery in the Accord died. And to top it off, his office had the AC and the fans on all day, he was so cold! Poor guy. I think it only got to about 16 degrees yesterday, and when I left for the doctors, my car said it was 11. BRRRRRRRR! Jon got a new battery for the car this morning before heading to work. Gotta love those unexpected expenses!

Anyway, according to the doc, Cecilia is "advanced". She "has the head control of an 8 month old" and is "the strongest 4 month old" that the doc "has seen in a long time." Dr. Postel predicts that Cecilia will be crawling by her 6 month appointment, and will have two teeth in by Christmas. That's right- my 4 month old is teething! YIKES!!! She said that we can start her on a little bit of rice cereal if we want. And at this point, I want. I want to sleep for more than 4 hours at a time at night. So, when the temperature gets to a more acceptable level (today it is only supposed to be 8 degrees), I will head out of the warm house to buy some new food.

Cecilia is in the 60th percentile for all of her measurements, here are her 4 month stats:
Weight: 13 lbs. 9 oz.
Height: 25 inches
Head: 42 cm

In other news, we finally got the tree decorated. It has been up with lights on it for over a week, and we finally got the ornaments on it on Sunday night. We already found the best Christmas present under the tree!

Cookie Exchange Review

It was a lovely gathering of women. Cecilia was by far the most popular lady around.

Before the party got started she got to meet her cousin, Chris.
Hanging out with the hostess with the mostest- Aunt Jackie, and Aunt Cindy.

Four Generation Picture

Cecilia was thrilled with the selection of cookies that I picked. She dove right in.

Cookie Exchange Preview

I admit, I am not bringing cookies to the annual cookie exchange this year. I am bringing candies. Have I mentioned that since I have been home with C, I have really enjoyed cooking and baking? It has been nice to be able to experiment with different recipes and ingredients. It doesn't help that I like to watch Giada De Laurentiis on Food Network while I nurse Cecilia. I think she is fabulous, and she has inspired me to make many yummy things.

Anyway, this year I am bringing Chocolate Dipped Cranberry-Orange Nougat, and Truffle Pops with festive sugars, coffee-cocoa, and candy cane shells. They were fun to make, and I am excited to bring some yummy cookies home this afternoon.

New Toy

Cecilia and I visited my friend Sara at Happy Cakes today. Sara gave Cecilia a new used excersaucer. I thought that Cecilia was going to be too little for it, but she loves it! She likes how it stands her up, and she loves all of the fun things to play with on it. YAY! It is perfect timing because she is going to be outgrowing her playmat very soon. Thank you Sara!!

Anti-Nap

It is 12:15PM. Cecilia has been awake since 6AM. She has taken two 10 minute naps, and I am going to pull my hair out. I think that I have the only baby in the world that is soooo tired, but won't nap. Seriously! What other 4 month old does this?!?!??!!

Turkey Anyone?

We celebrated Cecilia's first Thanksgiving at my Aunt Jenny and Denise's house. The food was delicious! We brought the mashed potatoes, and we started a new tradition and brought Butternut Squash Soup, it was so good! It was a small gathering for my family, only 15 people were there. It was great to visit with everyone, and share in the spirit of giving thanks for all that we have. Jon's Dad also joined us, it was nice to spend time with him.

Cecilia wanted to eat right as our dinner was being served (of course) and then she slept for two hours. She was having difficulty falling asleep in a new place, but Daddy's chest was the perfect bed.