Former Fridays: Tommy's Baptism

Today has to be a quickie without much explanation - traveling has kept me from scanning anything new or thinking too hard about today's picture.  However, I thought this one would be apt.  Yesterday was my brother's baptism anniversary.  His Godparents are our Uncle Tom and Aunt Paula - enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Former Fridays: Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve!  This comes from the archives of my dad's youth.  (He is "Bob, 17").  I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Eve!  We always light a ton of candles and my dad reads us The Night Before Christmas.  I love it!  

Pre-Christmas Festivities

Because we're headed to my parents for Christmas, we had a little celebration with my in-law's this past weekend. It was quite the transition out and back into Advent, but it was good to spend time with them as well as my brother-in-law who is home from college.

Anni obviously didn't really get the whole opening presents thing... in fact... tissue paper made her a little crazy, so we just opened her presents for her and we'll work them in as we go :).  She did quadruple her book collection (it was pitifully small), so we're pretty excited for that!  I'll have to share her awesome "Busy Bible" with you all later.  She's not quite old enough to get it yet (although the fact that it is cloth is a big hit as she has been very tactile lately), but when she is, I think she'll have a blast with it (and if not, I'll play with it).

This is actually at our place.  I was working on finishing our Christmas cards, and she discovered this lovely shiny paper stuck in the top of her gift from her great grandparents.  Figuring she couldn't do much damage to herself or it, I watched her play with it for a minute (she never discovered that there was a gift past that).  She seriously attacked this stuff.  I don't know if it was the shininess or it's slippery ability to avoid her bites, but she ended in tears.  I was alone for bathtime that night and we ended up pulling an early bedtime.  phew.

And on to our celebration...
  

If I haven't mentioned this, my husband is an amazing pianist.  We don't have a piano, nor a place to put it, so he only gets to play when we're at his or my parent's houses.  mmm... Christmas music.

She looks so big in her new, bigger clothes (we are transitioning her into 6-9 month clothes right now).

We also had a wonderful success with Anni's Uncle Dave.  Last time he was home (Thanksgiving) she was pretty picky about him holding her, but this time she was all smiles and love :).  I'm so glad, because she doesn't get to see him often, so it's wonderful to see him soaking in all of her cuteness!

And speaking of Christmas-ey things... I guess we did the Santa thing.  We're still discussing how the "Santa thing" will be handled when she's older, but Santa (a husband of one of the other mother's) came to our MOPs group, so we did a picture.  She was so fascinated by her feet that this is the only one you can see her face.  I love our daughter!  

The rolling is picking up speed.  She knows she can get to whatever her little heart desires just by a few gymnastic moves.  It's pretty cool to watch... but baby-proofing is happening often as we go and discover more things she can reach.

 These were Daniel's overalls when he was a little boy (I'll have to hunt up a picture).  She's making the faces at her daddy singing the frog song (a big favorite... with the both of them). 

Oh, Mary.  What fun baby Jesus must have been.

Crafty Christmas Cookies

I am so proud of these: I just had to share.  They are very loosely based on these lovely jars of sea salt scrub that Kelle over at Enjoying the Small Things made.  Only... ours had cookies... and I couldn't find squares of fabric so I used Christmas paper.  But, you know, it planted that seed :).  We made these for Daniel's departmental co-workers and one more for my best friend who is currently a soldier just beginning her tour of duty in Kuwait.  Guess it won't be a surprise anymore if she gets internet access before they arrive... but that's okay :).  She deserves to know something yummy is headed her way.

Anyway, despite the fact that we stayed up until nearly two to finish these, they are really simple.  We made a pecan shortbread cookie (the Betty Crocker recipe), making little round cookies to fit into our jars.  Then we fit some paper into the lids, tucked in a cute little tag and there we go!

Now to figure the best way to mail one overseas...