Beginning the Christmas Season

I don't know about you but Dan and I LOVE Christmas! What do we love about Christmas? We love going to get our Christmas Tree the Day after Thanksgiving. We love decorating it. Ok who am I kidding I decorate it! Dan watches. In his words "The lights are over there!" We love my baking. Well Dan and others like my baking. I enforced the whole. One treat rule. Meaning I can only try one creation at a time. So one cookie, one piece of fudge, etc. (baby weight, must come off!!). Plus Brooke loves to sit in her bumbo on the counter (I know it's for the ground.. I'm bad.. but I do watch her carefully!) and watch me bake. Okay so I let her help with banging on some bowls. What else do we love? We love that we are family, a small one that has traditions and are making new traditions.

Last week due to the huge blizzard/ Ice storm I had 6 days off. Well due to the holiday and I have Wednesdays off. So we both got to spend some quality time with Brooke. Which is Wonderful especially when you work and work. And it feel like all you do is work and never see your daughter. Monday night I was completely thankful we all made it home safe. Dan has a wonderful coworker that let him stay for dinner and hang out until the traffic died down. He reached our house at 10pm. Mind you we usually are off work about 4pm. I left work at 3:45 and I carpool with my dad. So I had to get off the highway, which people were already losing control in the right lane and landing in ditches, to pick up my dad. After that we both decided I needed gas just in case we ran out due to how long we would be on the road. I had a quarter tank. So after that we hit I-5, the carpool lane in 4 wheel drive. Like I say while running "slow and steady" that's how I made it home. I was trying to stay as far away from any other cars as possible. Luckily we are soo blessed that my mom watches Brooke so Brooke was fine at my parents house. Once we reached my parents house at 6:45, my wipers were frozen over, the wind was blowing and it was still snowing and the roads were just getting icer and icer. So I stayed the night there and drove home at 7:30 am the next morning. I made it home by 8am. No place like HOME!

Thanksgiving was nice. Dan as always dominates the kitchen on this day. He loves cooking but Dan cooks a TON of food. Yes we threw a ton of food away. I almost wanted to find a homeless person to give it to. Even Brooke had her first taste of mash potatoes. Yes I spent most of the time trying to get the tablecloth out of her hands or picking up mash potatoes and feeding Brooke her sweet potato/ Turkey meal. Yes she has moved on to Stage 2 foods!! Whoohoo! Now to get her to open her mouth and pay attention.

Friday Dan worked and I stayed home with Brooke. Lots of play with me Sesame Street, floor time and we got really tired of her toys. The weather was horrible so we stayed in and well you know the mall walking situation so we were kind of trapped in the house. I told her only 24 more days until she gets some fun new ones.Saturday we decided to hit Home Depot instead of hiking out to the Tree Farm in the Mountains to get our tree. So we all went to pick out the Christmas tree. Even Miss Grabby-Hands-Mcgee was feel Christmas trees The one that got the biggest smile we got. Sunday was Holiday Pictures. Yes Brooke's first photo shoot. She did awesome! Once I them I will have to scan them in and post. Lots of drool in a few but she did VERY well compared to some of the other kids there. She also made a few friends baby style :-)

 I love to act like I'm eating the camera!

 HI!! It's 5am on a Saturday. Aren't you glad to see me?

 It's SNOWING!! Brooke is loving the snow.

Brooke watching the snow fall from her bumbo.

This year Dan and I decided Christmas is about new traditions, family, friends and well Brooke. You have to say it because it's her first Christmas. And also the reason why we are greatful to even celebrate Christmas the real reason Jesus. I know Dan's not real big into religion or spiritual walk. Him and God are trying to patch one up. So all I can be is a supportive wife in that sense. But lately I have been big into trying to get back to where I was and surround myself with hopeful, loving, faithful people. And I have to say I have some great friends I have connected with. Friends from the Past mostly, it's been incredible getting to connect with them this year.