Christmas

I can't imagine a better age for experiencing Christmas with your little one than when she is one week shy of 18 months.  I say that now, and I'm sure next Christmas I will retract that statement and say 2 1/2 is the best age, and the next year, I'll correct myself yet again...but boy, was it fun to watch Annie this year.  She didn't get the concept of Santa or anything - she does tell you when asked that he says "Oh, oh, oh" (which is close enough, right?) and she points to him in pictures and ornaments and what not - but she liked unwrapping gifts and playing with each thing IMMEDIATELY if not sooner.  She also didn't understand the story of Jesus' birth, but she pointed to him in her Little People Nativity and said, "baby," so I think we at least have the ground work laid. :-)

Here is our Christmas in pictures, because they do a better job showing you how our girl's second Christmas went than I ever could in words.

We had Christmas at my mom's the Friday before the holiday, so Annie got to start her holiday fun early...

Reading Christmas books with Grandma

This girl and her cleaning supplies.  Her Grandma is teaching her well!

The word "love" is not at all too strong to describe Annie's feelings about this slide.

The day after our Christmas celebration at my mom's, when I got out the dollhouse my brother and sister-in-law gave her, it was as if Annie was seeing it for the first time again.

We then traveled to Fort Wayne to spend Christmas with David's family.  Annie got to hang out with her cousins, including sweet cousin Eliot, who is only 3 months older than her.  I'm telling you, we couldn't have planned this any better - these two are such fun to watch as they grow up together!

Building blocks with Eliot.

Helping out Santa with Papa.

It was a fantastic second Christmas with Annie!  We couldn't have asked for a better one.  Happy holidays to all of you - I hope your season has been blessed like ours!