Pre-Christmas Practice Run

This past weekend provided some much needed present practice so that I can be as efficient as possible on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning; there's no time to waste when there are presents to open.

Last week, we had a Playgroup Christmas Party at Mrs. Lindsi's house. We all brought a dessert, and the Moms had a white elephant present exchange, whatever that is; all I know is that Mom was very excited about the AMC gift certificate and coupon for babysitting, so thank you, Mrs. Allison. The Moms played with their cameras and took some pictures of themselves, and then it was the baby photo shoot, which was much cuter, in my opinion. It was wonderful to celebrate the holidays with all of my favorite friends. Four of us can now walk, and I am the only girl out of the four, which suits me to a tee. Although there were tons of toys to play with and desserts to eat, Lucas, Boris and I decided that the toilet was much more fun. Who needs toys when you have a toilet on which to drum! I love my Playgroup, and the holiday party was a blast! I can't wait to see what everyone gets from Santa Clause.

























To begin the festive weekend, Mom and Dad attended the SoloHealth, Dad's small start up company, Christmas party on Friday night, and I had my first ever non-relative babysitter, Mrs. Lindsi. I cried a little when Mom and Dad left, but then Mrs. Lindsi gave me a full juice box to carry around the house, which quickly pacified me. Juice is the way to my heart! I got juice everywhere, and I enjoyed every minute of it. After the juice box, I was very good for Mrs. Lindsi. Thank you, Mrs. Lindsi; you are an awesome babysitter! Back to the Christmas party, Dad and Mom had a wonderful time with Dad's SoloHealth family. It was crazy though because just two years ago, the company Christmas party consisted of only Bart, his wife Ally, Dad, and Mom. Now, the company has grown to 8 employees and their spouses, so the Christmas party seemed huge! The people at Sugo were wonderful, and everyone had a great time; Mom should have taken her good camera though. Here's to another successful year for SoloHealth!

Now, to the most important portion of the weekend, Grandma, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Ian, Mrs. Sharon, and Mr. Carl all came up on Saturday. I actually pointed to Grandma when someone said Grandma, so she was really excited, and I wasn't so sure about Mr. Carl at first, but I definitely warmed up to him by the end of the day. After a great lunch at Cinco's, thanks to Uncle Ian, we all came back to our house and opened presents!!! Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Ian are spending Christmas in New York this year, so we had to celebrate a little early with them. I quickly became a present-opening-master! I do, however, like to take my time and enjoy the opening process. It was so exciting! I even helped Aunt Stephanie open her gifts, and decorated my butt with a beautiful Christmas bow, which actually got stuck totally on its own and stayed there the entire evening. Speaking of great gifts, Grandma brought me a new book, but I don't get the rest of her gifts until Christmas Eve. Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Ian loaded me up like always. I got the cutest Little People nativity scene complete with a baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the angel, the 3 wise men, a cow, a sheep, a donkey, and best of all, a camel; they spit, don't cha know. I also got a dress, a Lucky onesie, with a matching shirt for Mom, and a replica 1968 Frank Zappa t-shirt, of which Aunt Stephanie has a matching t-shirt. However, the best gift of all is my very own shopping cart! I like to push Pooh Bear around while shopping for nativity people. At first, I was better at pulling the cart, but now, I have the pushing concept down, and I think that it is hilarious when one of the grownups pushes my cart; they look so stupid pushing a mini, pink shopping cart! Mrs. Sharon and Mr. Carl got me the greatest sweater poncho, which I received a couple of weeks ago and have gotten many compliments on since. Thank you, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Ian, Mrs. Sharon, and Mr. Carl; you all spoil me rotten, and I love it. I'll miss you guys on Christmas Eve! I hope you have an awesome time in NY, Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Ian. I've gotten in my Christmas practice, so now, I am ready for the real deal!

I even had a trial run for my Christmas Eve dress; unfortunately, it involved waiting in line for almost 2 hours to scream on Santa's lap for about 20 seconds. It was terrifying! I don't know whose brilliant idea it was to make me sit on a big bearded man's lap, but I don't appreciate it. It was fun playing with the little girl in front of me in line and pretending to wash the cushions off with bottled water. At least, Grandma and Aunt Mallory came and stood in line with us. Grandma even took me on the Christmas train around the mall, and Aunt Mallory came home with us and chased me around the house with my shopping cart, which almost made up for the Santa experience. The dress looked good though, so that's all that matters.










































By the way, I have a new best friend. His name is Winnie the Pooh, and I insist on taking him everywhere now. Also, just so you know, I may be calling you in the near future, so have your phones handy. I have already called 911 twice from Dad's phone and Aunt Mallory, an old student, and an old co-worker from Mom's phone. I'm a social butterfly; what can I say!?



May your Christmas be merry and bright!

Getting Ready for...Presents, I Mean, Christmas!

The Christmas season is officially in full swing, and we are busy checking the holiday items off our list in preparation for the big celebration, as well as the fat man in the red suit who apparently only knows one word, Ho; at least, my verbal skills are ahead of his.

Items Already Checked Off:

- Find the perfect tree to bring into our home so as to thoroughly confuse Opie - by the way, why go to a real forest and cut down your own tree when you can head to Home Depot, find the perfect tree, and entertain the rest of the buyers with your supreme cuteness, all at the same time!?

- Decorate the tree with lots of ornaments that I can't touch and lights that make me go, "Ohhhh!" Well, nowadays, everything makes me go, "Ohhh," but you get the gist. There is one ornament that somehow comes off of the tree everyday, but I haven't the slightest clue as to who is behind this...

- Watch Mom decorate the house until it is unrecognizable just to be told over and over again, "Look with your eyes, but don't touch with your hands." I now point to my eyes whenever I look at a Christmas decoration; I have a feeling that this is going to cause a complex in the future. For the time being, the teddy bear chest is proving hardest to resist.
















- Pose in front of the tree while refusing to let go of Dad's cell phone. I know what is really important in life - social networks!














- Rate the Christmas specials on TV: "Charlie Brown's Christmas" - good, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" - better, "Prep and Landing" on ABC - best!










- Learn to say, "Ho, Ho, Ho!" as my seasonal party trick - by the way, I can now tell you what the lion, the dog, and the cow say, as well as put up one finger when asked how old I am - total genius, I know!


- Wish Mrs. Kelli, Mrs. Allison, and Aunt Stephanie very Happy Birthdays! We went to lunch for Aunt Stephanie's birthday, and she ordered the most decadent, amazing chocolate cake of all time! That woman knows the finer things in life. I love you Aunt Stephanie, and I hope you had a great birthday.

- Experience a southern snow - it snowed for all of 30 minutes, and I made sure to catch as many snowflakes as possible with my tongue before they hit the ground and instantly disappeared. Come on Mother Nature, you gotta give me a little more snow than that; the snow was so sad that you can barely see it in the pictures!

- Allow Mom to take a ridiculous amount of pictures so as to capture the perfect ONE for our Christmas card - seriously ridiculous, Mom! Good thing candy cane antlers compliment the shape of my face.

- Create and address the annual Christmas cards - I hope you enjoy "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" because we all look like Umpa Lumpas in the family picture on the card this year thanks to Mom's desire to play with the picture temperature and the new card company's not-so-professional print job. Oh well, the cards are done nonetheless, so be looking for yours in the mail.

- Hang out with Aunt Mallory while Mom and Dad attend the Lamb's annual Christmas Wine Party. For dinner, Aunt Mallory let me eat mini-corn dogs and french fries on the couch while watching football - no veggies required; take that, Mom! Aunt Mallory is the coolest! Mom and Dad thoroughly enjoyed the party, like always; thank you, Heather and Dirk, for another great Christmas party to kickoff the Holidays. Oh, GA Tech also won the ACC Championship that night, so Dad is definitely happy.

- Shop way too much! I don't think that Mom and I see eye to eye on this shopping stuff anymore. She wants me to sit in the stroller and be good, and I want to run around the store like a wild woman. It has made Christmas shopping quite an adventure this year. When she puts me in the stroller, I convulse my body up and down and scream so that everyone thinks that I am being abused; if she tries to carry me around the store, I writhe uncontrollably to make both of us as uncomfortable as possible, and if she puts me down, I take off. She even gave me her keys in an effort to keep me entertained, but I quickly learned that if I throw the keys, she has to put me down to pick them up. That made for a fun game until I lost key privileges. Oh, the joys of Christmas shopping; however, the presents do look nice under the tree.

- Find the perfect, plaid Christmas dress and traditional black patent shoes. Don't worry, Mom will take plenty of pictures; I am sure.

- Try to be a really good girl so that I end up on the nice list and Santa brings me lots of presents - I have even been brushing my teeth every morning and every night without a fight; although, I prefer to just suck the kiddie toothpaste off of the toothbrush. It's the effort that counts!

- Learn to push my princess chair up to the couch so that I can use it as a stool - I LOVE sitting and jumping on the cushions. I know, this is not exactly a Christmas task, but it is exciting, nonetheless.

- Hang out around the house in general 'cause baby it's cold outside - I've had to find new ways to entertain myself during these cold months. I've tried on every hat in the house, and I even resorted to wearing Mom's bra on my head; desperate times call for desperate measures. Apparently, Opie found a new way to entertain himself too when he tried to jump over me while running as fast as he can around the backyard; at least, I hope that is what he was trying to do. Needless to say, he didn't quite make it, and I have the biggest welt of my life to prove it; just check out the picture! Thanks, Op; watch your back because revenge is sweet!

- Enjoy having Dad home every night while he takes a hiatus from traveling so that he can spend the holiday season with me...oh, and I guess Mom too.

Items Still on the List:

__ Sit on some big, bearded man's lap while I scream hysterically and probably become scarred for life. I am totally down with the idea of telling him everything that I want, but I'm just not sold on the idea of sitting on his lap. There has got to be a compromise.

__ Finish the Christmas shopping - watch out retail employees everywhere; I am coming for you! In fact, I am going Christmas shopping at the mall with just Dad today. Wish me luck; I'll need it, and so will he! This is the first time that I have gone anywhere with just Dad; the time that we went and picked up balloons at Party City doesn't really count. Only time will tell if I actually get a diaper change during this whole adventure!

__ Remove the huge Halloween pumpkin from our yard; Dad, the neighbors are making fun of us! I am already embarrassed of the rents, and I am not even a hormonal, brace faced teenager yet.

__ Make the outside of the house look as festive as the inside; Dad, you're up - get on it. Seriously, Halloween was like a month and a half ago!

__ Attempt to bake holiday cookies; I hope that Mom doesn't really think that dough in a tube counts; Grandma, help us! Actually, I'd rather have ketchup anyways, and I don't need anything to go with my ketchup; a fry is just a vessel with which to scoop the ketchup, and I prefer using the same fry for the entire mound of ketchup.

__ Call the family together and go wild as we celebrate Christmas Eve at Grandma's and Christmas Day at our house! I'm already practicing both calling and going wild, at the same time. Christmas, I am ready for you!

I hope that you are checking your holiday items off with ease and preparing to have as magical a Christmas, or Hanukkah, as we are. May your holidays be filled with love, joy, family, friends, and happiness. Happy Holidays!