Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas recap

 We had a quiet Christmas at home, just the tree three of us. So much fun to wake up in our own beds and bring a sleepy baby downstairs for her first Christmas.
 Our tree. It's decorated with crocheted snowflakes (very exciting for the cats), some gold shatter-proof balls, and gold ornaments. I thought for sure Charlotte would be into the whole tree thing, but I think its spikiness put her off; she didn't try to play with it at all.

Matt gave me an iPhone for Christmas. He also made one out of cardboard - that was meant to be for me, but Charlotte latched onto it and really seems to love it. And, see that package of rope at her feet? Apparently, when the two of them were shopping, she kept reaching for it. That was her gift to me. Every time I pass it, I smile. So thoughtful, that kid.


The cat got a present, too. What do you think - does that box make his butt look big?

 Matt made eggs and sausage, and I made a cinnamon bun cake. Everyone enjoyed it all.

A white Christmas! That was very exciting to me. I'm trying to remember, but I think we only ever had snow at Christmas once growing up. Happens a lot more up here, and I love it - as does Charlotte! We have a snow bunny on our hands. She really digs looking out the window at it. Fortunately, we have it in spades now.

 We went for a hike with the dog at a county forest nearby. I think this is going to be our Christmas tradition - family hikes. We'll have to get a bigger backpack next year!

Our neighbors invited us over for Christmas lasagna. Charlotte wore her party dress and party shoes and was a doll. I cannot get over how much I love this kid!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas cards

Oh, boy, have I fallen down a wormhole!

We somehow managed to find time in our schedules to have some family photos taken by Cara Olsen. The proofs were so delightful that I was compelled to buy the entire CD of images from the shoot. And then, I meandered my way to PicMonkey.

And that's where I fell down.

PicMonkey has sucked up so.much.time in the past week. I really need to break the bonds, but when I can so easily produce things like:

and:

or how 'bout:


Well, it's easy (to me, at least) to see how I wouldn't want to stop!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Family ties

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Charlotte and I hung out with her Aunt Jess and Grandma, while Uncle Jason and Dada went hunting.

We went to a playground and had so much fun.
We went down the slides...

 Grandma took her and Aunt Jess for a ride...

 And finally, she had fun on the swings.


After dinner, we all piled in the cars to go see Charlotte's Great Great Aunt June.

Uncle Jason was being funny and doing something with his hoodie strings - I think. Let's be honest - I just included this photo because I really enjoy how she's delicately holding her sweater up.

Charlotte shared her book with Aunt June:

Towards the end, she was getting a little cranky. If she could see me, and I didn't immediately pick her up, this is the face she made:
I can just hear the awful whining now. That sound. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me. But at least she's cute when she does it.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

It's deer season up in New York, and for as long as I can remember, Matt has spent Thanksgiving week at his parents' so that he can go hunting. In years past, I've spent Thanksgiving with my family in DC, but we thought it'd be nice to spend it all together. So, Thanksgiving morning found me, Charlotte, and Gus in the car driving out to the Finger Lakes. 

She was great in the car - because I am so, so smart! We left at naptime. Genius here, folks. She slept for two hours, and was awake and annoyed for the final thirty minutes. Totally tolerable, though. 

Matt and I spent a few hours in a ground blind. I was so incredibly hopeful I was going to be his good luck charm. No dice. We did eventually see a few deer several hundred yards in the distance (I think. I mean, it's not like I had a measuring tape) but that was after the sun had officially set, signalling the end of the hunting day. We left Charlotte with Grandma, who managed to not only get her to sleep, but got her dressed once she woke up. 

Charlotte doesn't look it here, but she was beyond thrilled to be eating Thanksgiving foods. I swear, she got the stuffing in her mouth as fast as I could get it on the tray! 


And she figured out very quickly how to let us know she was all done.