Christmas 2011

As always, our holiday was fantastic.  It was also a little blurry because of a certain newborn.  I read a lot of blogs and posts about people staying home by themselves because they wanted to bond with their baby and were afraid of cold and flu cooties.  No thank you.  Being stuck inside alone with two kids drives me bananas.  Instead, we had company from Thanksgiving to after the new year.  It was great!

 

Grandpa O'Brien visited for an early Christmas and to meet Ella.

 

Uncle Zach joined in the fun a few days later.  Ruby love, love, loves Uncle Zach.  He took her outside to ride bikes and scooter, took her to the park (and apparently shakes the poles while Ruby is in the slide) and played dress up and imaginary games all day long.  Uncle Zach is currently riding his bike through Mexico but Ruby clearly misses him.  She told Grandma that she wants to get "married up" to Uncle Zach.

 

 

Grandma Jo and Grandma Stone both joined us for Christmas Day.

 



And, as always, we had lots of visits (and food) with Auntie, Uncle Kevin and Grandma O'Brien (Grandpa Gary was in Ohio for the holiday but is back home now so all is good). 

 

Ruby was spoiled.  She was showered with gifts but always said thank you and gave big hugs after opening them.  I keep a list of things that Ruby talks about throughout the year and use them as ideas for the family at holiday times. Among other things, she got a sleeping bag, jewelry box and jewelry, lamp, guitar and a Belle doll with a real dress.  She loves them all and plays with everything regularly.  The one thing she actually asked for was a purple big girl bike with two wheels.  Luckily, Talbot's has a direct line to Santa and this showed up on our porch Christmas morning. 

 

Ella was still pretty much eating, sleeping and pooping at this point so she lived in pajamas.  I did make an effort to put her in a Christmas outfit for the day.  Like nearly everything, it was Ruby's.  It's a three month outfit.  Ruby was 5.5 months old when she wore it.  Ella was 1.5 months old.  Way to go chunky monkey! 

 

 

It was our third holiday in California.  I am so thankful that our family has been with us all three years.  This year I was particularly thankful because they either tended to Ella while I did other things or did other things while I tended to Ella.  The "other things" meant our house stayed clean, our laundry got done and we had food in our kitchen.  It also meant I got to take showers and naps.  But, the best "other thing" was Ruby.  We still got to have our time together which made the holiday great and her to transition to being a big sister almost a non issue.  Thanks everyone!  I truly appreciate you.