Christmas Pictures

Lots of pictures, too many to label individually!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day
(yes, she spent all day in her pajamas!)

Merry Christmas 2007!

More photos soon...

Almost Christmas

It's Christmas Eve and Jeff is wrapping presents, so I am catching up on some blogging! We've had some nice days leading up to Christmas. We have kept things fairly low-key this year, what with the recent move, the upcoming baby, etc. Still, I think we have managed to prepare for a special holiday with our little girl..our last one with her as our only child.

We didn't get a tree...something I do regret a little, but it's ok. I still put up Lucy's own little tree and, like last year, got her some very special new ornaments. She now has a lot of ornaments, so next year she will have to have a much bigger tree! I'll bet that next year, instead of doing a picture-perfect silver and red themed tree as I have done in past years, I will make it a real family Christmas tree with the kids' ornaments on it. Heck, maybe I'll even live on the edge and get colored lights :)

Lucy's tree and her new Nativity set

Dorothy and Toto! I will try to get her an ornament to commemorate her Halloween costume every year (we have a lady bug ornament from last year).

I love this...bought it on our recent trip to Florida. I like to get her ornaments when we travel but couldn't find an Amelia Island one that I liked, so I got this instead to remember the trip. She also has new ornaments from London and Aruba that we got on our trips to those places this year.

Lucy and I headed down to Cape Cod on Friday morning to see my parents. In the evening, we went to the "Enchanted Village" to check out the lights. It wasn't exactly spectacular, but Lucy really liked it and that is what's important!

And she had fun helping decorate her Nonni's tree on Saturday!

The Tudors had the right idea...sort of

I just finished reading "The Other Boleyn Girl." It's about Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn (the famous 2nd wife of King Henry VIII who was beheaded to make way for the 3rd wife). There are lots of pregnancies in the book, and it describes how in the month before a woman of the court was to give birth, she would go into relative seclusion in a dark room. Now, I am sure that in the days before tv this was terribly boring (though these women were surrounded by ladies in waiting...which would be essential to this type of thing!). Still, not such a bad idea. This thought came to me this morning as I literally climbed a bank of ice and snow to get from my car to the sidewalk and then skidded across icy sidewalks to get to my office. The Tudor women certainly would not have been doing such things so close to the birth of their children, I thought! Of course, I am not about to give birth to the heir to the throne of England, and there are many, many aspects of the Tudor court that I am just not cool with (pressure to produce a male child & beheading being chief amongst them). Still, some days I think it would be awfully nice to lay in my room while people bring me food, play music for me, and take care of my child...

But then again, Jeff says that I would probably go nuts. And he's probably right :)

Snow schmo

We got a major snowfall yesterday. I'm not sure of exactly how much we ended up with, but I'd say about 10 inches or so. I came home from work early to beat the snow -- I made it home just as it was really picking up outside. (Thank goodness I left work when I did, because if I had waited any longer the traffic would have been a nightmare. It took people hours and hours to do their normal half hour commutes.) Jeff has been away this week, but my mom was here to keep Lucy and me company. We had a lot of fun being snowed in!

Lucy discovered the joys of Soy Nog...


And had a ton of fun making cookies...

We now affectionately call these "boop" cookies, or "boopies" because every time Lucy put her little finger in the middle to make the well for the jam, she said "boop!" She actually woke up this morning talking about her boops. The funny thing is, she will not eat a cookie. She will hold it and lick it but has no interest in eating it.

She also had a ton of fun hopping around in her new lambie slippers that her Nonni bought her. I know, lambs don't hop, but they remind me of bunny slippers so I told her to hop in them and now she thinks it is great fun. Here they are:

An escape from the cold

I had a conference to attend in Amelia Island, Florida last week and Jeff & Lucy came along for the ride. It worked out perfectly because we were able to visit Jeff's uncle and aunt, Ray and Jan, who live on the island. We stayed at the Amelia Island Plantation (very nice!) for two nights, and then planned to stay with Ray & Jan for two more...which turned into three when our flight back to Boston was canceled due to bad weather. Poor us, an extra night in 75 degree weather! I think our little snow bunny quickly remembered that it is much more fun to be a beach bunny :) We had a great time...big thanks to Uncle Ray and Aunt Jan for being such wonderful hosts and tolerating a busy toddler so well.

Standing on the balcony of our room...nice view!

Only two more months to go!

This is what happens when you let a toddler choose her own outfit

With the Christmas tree in the hotel lobby

This was too cute...we tell her to "follow Daddy" and she does it so nicely, like a little duckling.

On the beach

Checking out the water with Daddy

Me and my girl at the ocean

Playing around at the beach

Sliding near the beach

Swimming in Uncle Ray's pool...heated to 89 degrees. A girl could get used to this!

Let it snow!

We had our first snowfall of the season last week and Lucy was thrilled with it. She really, really liked making hand prints and didn't seem to care much about how red and cold it made her little hands. She asks to touch the snow whenever she sees it. I sure wish I still found winter weather as fun as I did when I was a kid!

Walden

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

~Thoreau, in Walden~

We decided to get out and get some fresh air this morning, so we headed to Walden Pond. It is only about 10 minutes from our new home and it was the perfect destination. It was a cold day -- in the 30s -- but we were dressed properly and the sun was shining so the chill didn't get to us. Lucy rode around in the backpack and really like seeing the trees and the water. She must have been relaxed by the setting because she eventually fell asleep, giving Jeff and I the chance to sit down for a while and just enjoy the scenery and the quiet. After we left the pond, we went to Concord Village for some lunch and a visit to the toy store. On our way home, we stopped at Codman Farm to see the animals for a little while. A very nice "nature" day...and all before nap time!

Oh and as for the quote above, well, first, it is from Walden, which Thoreau wrote about his "experiment" living in a one-room cabin on Walden Pond for two years in the 1800s. It seemed appropriate because Lucy just seems so smart to us lately -- smarter than we are, really. She shows an early inclination to be a go-getter I think, because she now orders her daddy to "Get out of bed!" in the morning, and today after I took a shower and was still in my robe she pointed a little finger at me and said "Get dressed, Mommy!" Does she learn this stuff from us? I thought we were more relaxed than that!

In case there was any doubt about what is happening in a few short months...me and my other baby at Walden Pond

Lucy and Daddy at Walden Pond

Another one of Lucy and Daddy

Out cold!

Arriving at the farm

Tractor girl

"I see chickens!"