Christmas, Part I

We're going to be in Chicago for actual Christmas, so we had a little family Christmas on Sunday. Here's the Christmas tree, with Sammy looking out the window for Santa right next to the tree:


Emma surveying some of her presents, and starting to peel up the corner of one...


Cassie giving Emma a little kiss under the mistletoe!


And, finally, Emma opening one of her presents (it's Play-Doh!)

Decorating the Christmas tree

Grammy and Papa came over today to help us put ornaments on the Christmas tree. Here's Grammy with Emma, with a pre-decorating cookie.


Emma really liked helping with the ornaments. She's very fond of handing them out to people to put on the tree, too (she prefers to be the boss, apparently).




Though she did help Daddy put up a candy cane!


The whole family, in front of the Christmas tree. More than half of us are looking at the camera, which should be considered a major victory.


Emma with her stocking. Last year she actually fit in her stocking. This year, she's both too big and too wiggly for that to be an option, but we can hold it in front of her for comparison purposes. (This is the picture of her in the stocking from last year - she fit with room to spare!)


Finally, we celebrated a successful operation with a post-decorating treat. We let Emma try a few bites of chocolate (not something she usually gets to eat), and she was a huge fan!

Impressions 5

We took Emma to Lansing's Impression 5 Science Museum yesterday. They have a room specifically for young children and Emma had a GREAT time. They had a whole area where you could splash around in the water, which was a ton of fun.

They also had a neat set of slides, which Emma was a huge fan of.

Things for her to knock over.

And a tunnel for her to crawl through!

(Sorry to everybody who asked if she wanted one of those for Christmas or Chanukah - she didn't like them until very recently, apparently!)

And, finally, we had a bit of quiet time while she practiced her crayon work.

Emma's balloon

Emma sure loves her balloon. She also loves grabbing it when it's up by the ceiling!

Emma's cold?

Mommy thinks we live in Alaska or something. This is what Emma has to wear every time she goes out to walk the dogs. But doesn't she look so cute, especially in the hat and mittens mommy knit for her:

Emma's new skill

Emma learned how to blow kisses from her friend Jack today...

Happy Chanukah!

We went to celebrate Chanukah at Grammy and Papa's house. Emma was more involved this year than she was last year (since she can actually understand what's going on and help out). She helped stack her own presents...

Here she is, surveying her work.

Finally, the fun part: opening!

And, last but not least, making an awful lot of noise with one of her new gifts.

Thank you for the presents, Grammy and Papa!