Chanukah

Mimi and Papa came to stay for a couple of days and celebrate Chanukah with Emma. She got some wonderful toys, and some mom and dad wish might disappear due to noise/mess level. Here she is with her new karaoke machine (which she really only likes to meow in for some reason):

Here she is with her very own digital camera (watch out paparazzi, here she comes):
And with her new basketball hoop (she is actually not bad, considering her parentage):

And finally, having fun reading instruction booklets with Papa:

And, last but not least, here she is being a perfect hostess with her brand new tea cart:

Thanks for coming to spend time Mimi and Papa and for all the great new gifts!

Christmas Day with the Kellehers

We spent Christmas Day with Grandma's side of the family. Emma modeled another one of her pretty dresses!


She spent some time opening presents with her cousins (and again was more interested in the wrapping paper than the toys).


And we even manage to take another family picture (though this is the only one where most everybody had their eyes open, even though we took approximately 80 pictures).


It was great to see everybody!

Christmas Eve with the O'Shea family

On Christmas Eve, we went to the O'Shea family Christmas party. Emma looked very pretty in her red dress! (Oh, and she made sure to wear her jingle bell too, just so you could hear her coming.)


She sat on Santa's lap, and we're very happy (and awfully surprised) to report that she didn't burst into tears.


And finally she had a few drinks and snacks with some of her cousins, away from Mom's prying eyes.


(Note that the beer bottle in front of Emma does NOT belong to her!)

Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa's house

Emma had a great Christmas weekend in Chicago. On Christmas eve, we spent the morning with Grandma, Grandpa, and Emma's cousins (oh, and her aunts and uncles too). She had a lot of fun opening presents...


Playing with her cousin Dave's guitar (we are definitely going to have to give her one for her birthday)


Playing with her cousin Dave's hockey stick (Are you sensing a theme? Other peoples' presents are more fun than yours!)


And we even had the chance to take a picture of the whole family.


The grandparents with their grandkids:


And finally, Alexis, Dave, and Emma. (Dave isn't really interested in being photographed - he just wants to get back to his hockey sticks.)

Drummer Emma

Emma got a her first secret Santa gift. It was a wonderful small electric drum set. Emma couldn't wait to play it, not even until it was out of the box. Thank goodness it seems to be a little temperamental and doesn't always make the electric noises as mommy and daddy already have a headache from it:

Fun in Chicago

We went into Chicago for Christmas on Friday. And boy is Emma having a ton of fun. Grandma made lots of cookies for decorating and Emma enjoyed helping daddy decorate a few (notice the copious amounts of green sugar on Emma's cookie that indicates daddy's failure to closely monitor at all times:

Taste testing the cookie:

The aftermath of eating so much frosting:

Here she is with her cousin Dave going for a daddy ride:

Posing with Grandma:


And enjoying some time with Grandpa: