We spent our “first” Christmas with Nana, Poppa, and Tia. Presents and Tia – what more could B ask for?
All the presents under the tree, ready for Christmas morning.
The next morning, while children all around the world were waking up their parents at un-Godly hours of the day, our child slept until after 9AM. 
I wonder if I can count on that in the years to come?
Seeing what Santa left her in her stocking (made special for her by Mimi and Tatie Kat).
Two days before Christmas Eve, B announced to her buddy’s Mom, that Santa was bringing her a pink dinosaur…Santa sure would like a little more notice next time!
After Poppa made us a breakfast of yummy french toast and grits, we passed out all the presents. Here, B and Tia are scouring the gifts under the tree for B’s symbol.
Ready to open presents!
Just like at her birthday, B insisted on playing with each gift before opening a new one. It was absolutely precious! Note the ever present sucker or candy cane in some of the pictures. She would have eaten those all day if we had let her!
Nana made B this beautiful hairbow “dress” – the skirt has ribbons to hang the bows from, and later, when B gets older she can actually wear it if she wants!
Making “trains” with her letters
After the nap that never happened, she put on her Christmas dress and her big girl panties and opened one last gift.
Who needs sand? Or water?
I wonder what she is up to…
She had a wonderful day, and we all loved every minute of Christmas through her eyes. Merry Christmas everyone!
Things sure have been busy around here since Thanksgiving! In addition to helping bake cookies, Brianna has been helping us with other holiday activities. Last weekend, we went to the local farm and picked out a tree. On the way there, we stopped at the farmer’s market across the street for some holiday treats. I think Brianna was more interested in her tree-topped cupcake than in picking out a tree.
After hurrying home (it was very cold outside!), she gobbled up her “snake” hotdog before finishing off the cupcake icing (who needs the actual cupcake??).
After her nap she did a GREAT job helping us decorate the tree.
Later in the week, we finally took her to get her first haircut. We told her she had to go see Ms. Kelly and sit in the big chair, but that she could choose to NOT get her hair cut if she wanted. While she gave Ms. Kelly a look pretty much the whole time, she sat perfectly still high up in the chair while Ms. Kelly cut 1-2 inches off the bottom to even things out and give her hair a more finished look. She didn’t say a word, but she still cooperated!
Here she is getting her hair cut,
and here she is picking a candy cane off the tree after her hair cut.
Compare the length and “finished look” to the tree decorating photo above – that is pretty much the only way you will be able to tell the difference.
She also received a couple of “pre-Christmas” presents that she has been allowed to open (much to her delight!), including the headband featured above. Opening Christmas jammies:
Opening Frosty coloring book (she LOVES Frosty these days), so this was an excellent call.
These last two are just a couple of pictures of her in front of her Christmas Advent tree
She has really enjoyed putting a new ornament up each day. It is right at the foot of the stairs, so she often does it first then after she comes downstairs each morning (along with looking for her elf, “football player”).
This past weekend, we made all kinds of cookies. Brianna was a big help with the sugar cookies. Before we started, we put her in her new apron. For the rest of the day, she pretty much had to wear it whenever she was in the kitchen…
She helped sift all the dry ingredients – she particularly loved banging the side of the sifter, presumably to shake flour from the sides of the sifter…but she banged so hard it sometimes shook the flour right out of the sifter!
I don’t have any more pictures from my camera of when she helped roll out the dough, cut the cookies, and decorate the cookies – they are all on Jason’s camera in some weird format that I have trouble working with. I did capture it on my flip, though. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll put that movie together and send it out.
Until then, I thought you might enjoy these pictures as well as the one below where Brianna was warding off the cold with her new hat and scarf…
Well, since Brianna is still asleep, and the snow has wiped out our satellite signal (thus no Auburn/South Carolina game), I figured I would do a post. For Thanksgiving this year, Brianna’s Great Grandma and Tatie Kat came to visit, and Brianna’s buddy Hawke and his parents came over for dinner. Alas, the kids did not stop moving long enough for me to get one single picture, but I have some others to share.
Before everyone arrived, we FINALLY organized the loft upstairs. I think it turned out pretty good, and so far, Brianna is doing a great job putting things away after she plays with them.
The day after Thanksgiving, we tried full on potty training with Brianna.
First she modeled her snazzy Cars “panties” – she was very excited. I say was because after messing up her panties twice, she basically decided she was not interested anymore. We are not pushing. She still goes potty pretty much every time we change her diaper, and sometimes she even tells us she needs to go potty. We will try another full on attempt again over the holidays when we are home with her for multiple days in a row.
Brianna has had a wonderful time playing with Great Grandma – they talk, and talk, and talk (and talk…), and they play stickers and read books and do all kinds of fun things.
We are having a very nice time – these precious opportunities are so rare.
Now, if the satellite would just start working again…
