20081230

Finally...

So Christmas is over, the decorations are down, and I'm almost done finding storage for the million new toys Miss Cora got for Christmas. Finally I can (kind of) relax. I had been jonesing for Christmas since September and then when it finally got here I was totally not jivin' with the whole Christmas Spirit thing. I procrastinated it all until the last day and then cursed my way through wrapping presents and making preparations. I was just in a weird mental state this year (maybe because we hosted our first Christmas Dinner which had me totally stressed out!)
The food though, was (like whoa) good! I was proud of myself for finding a fool-proof recipe for turkey and (not to brag) I think Mel and I made the best turkey I've ever had!  
Christmas morning Cora was a little uneasy and confused. Both Mel and I came to get her out of her crib in the morning (which never happens) and she didn't know what to think about that. She kept looking at us like, "what's going on here??" Opening presents was even more weird for her, probably because we'd been telling her not to play with them for a month (she's thinking, "geez people, make up your minds!") She opened four or five presents and then she was done. She just wanted to play with her new toys and couldn't care less about all those silly boxes under the tree. It took all day to get her to open them (and I ended up opening five or six that night after she went to bed just so I could throw all the paper away!) Don't worry though, I only opened the ones we got her, clothes and stuff. She got to open the fun stuff!
Anyway, at the end of it all we had a wonderful holiday, great food with great friends and lotsa cool loot (new iPhones, The Sims for the Wii, a mother's ring (from Cora), clothes, toys, toys, toys, electronic gadgets for the iPod, lotsa $$$, good books, etc.) What a blessing to have such wonderful and generous friends and family who give so much. I love you all!! Thank you!! And here's to a blessed and wonderful upcoming 2009!




Is that smile incredible or what?!

20081226

Merry Christmas!







20081214

ABCDEFG



Cora knows her whole alphabet!! We are so incredibly proud of her (and look how proud she is of herself!) She has letter puzzles, letters on the fridge, and letters in her bathtub and you can ask her where any letter is and she will point it out to you, she can pronounce almost all of them too (and although the N, Q, Y, and C are hard for her to say she still knows what they are.)  It's amazing to me how smart she is (and I know all parents say that, but really... in her case it's true!)

CHOO CHOO!



We went to the mall the other day to do some Christmas shopping and Cora was entranced by the "choo choo" so we decided to give it a shot and let her ride it (knowing she would scream as soon as it started to move.) We were so wrong. She loved it!! She cried and cried when the ride was over and asked for the "choo choo" the whole way home (and cried when we said no more choo choo for the day.) So we had to bring her back (of course) camera in tow. She rode twice in a row, she would spend all day on that thing!! I see many more choo choo rides in her near future and have no idea what we are going to do when Christmas is over and the "choo choo" goes bye-bye for the year!


20081203

Christening the New Home






We are still a long way from finished on the whole "moving" front, but it is starting to feel like home.  Here are a few shots from the past few days... christening our new home with Christmas.  It's a great time of year to start anew.