Christmas Morning

As you know, I spent the holidays back home in the Chicagoland area. A few days prior to Christmas I took the train down to my daughter Jessica's house.

I had FOUR full days of this beautiful little smile:

Now I ask you, could YOU resist that smile?

I did the majority of my holiday shopping on line and had all the packages sent to Jessica's house. What little shopping I did in PERSON, I packed in this Home Depot box that you see in the background.

I had picked up a lot of miscellaneous things for Lily from the local Goodwill store like small dishes for her play kitchen, foam puzzles, and this pack 'n play for her dollies.

It only cost me a mere $3.99! I saw it for $12.99 in the stores! I brought it home, washed the fabric in the washing machine, sterilized all the other parts with a clorox wipe, stitched up a small tear in the fabric, and we were good to go! You can see that Lily liked it! She readily filled it with her baby dolls "Baby" and "Honey", and of course, her beloved bear "George".

Every day I'd take something out of "Grandma's magical box" and give it to Lily. She would get so excited over this. Nothing was over $4, and the majority was from Goodwill.

I love this photo of Lily while she's studying a photo in a book, trying to find objects on the page. She's really engaged in the activity!

On Christmas morning Lily came downstairs and asked, "Where's Santa?"

Her mother explained that Santa was already gone, but that he had left presents for her.

Lily said, "Oh my God, I am SO excited!"

She picked up one box and shook it. (It was a puzzle.) She heard the pieces moving around and asked, "Is Santa in HERE?"

I don't think she quite understands the "Santa" concept yet!

I won't bore you with all the pictures from Christmas - just the ones I think are the funniest and/or cutest of Lily.

Here she is so excited because she received a Nerf football! (She loves to watch the Green Bay Packers with her Daddy, much to my chagrin! Go Bears!)

In the next three sequences of photos, look how excited she is to get a TOOTHBRUSH in her stocking!

Do you know those "net" wash things, or "foo-foo" things, that you use in the shower with body wash? (I don't know the official name of it do you?) Anyfoo, Lily got one in her stocking. Jessica told her that she got her own "loofah". Lily said, "OH MY GOD, I'm SO EXCITED! I have my OWN loofah!" And then she hugged it. Fact. Here's the proof.

Is this kid a comedian or what?

Of course, she's not the only one that's funny in that house. Look at their dog, Venus. I think she's trying to hide from all the commotion going on!

Unless she's trying to get warm. Then she snuggles up against anyone or anything on the couch, her brother, Atlas, included.

The cats and dogs ALL got stockings with treats inside. Here the dogs are getting their treats:

Two of the three cats are getting their treats.....Cora was hiding at the moment. AND where there's food....there's ATLAS (the male dog!)

We found Cora (the smallest cat) hiding under the tree. Jessica gave her a couple of treats but she wasn't interested. Of course Atlas, a.k.a. "Hoover", is hanging around just in case he gets lucky! Also, another cat is peeking out from under the tree. That's Kahn!

And finally, here's part of my family.

l-r: Jason (son), Dave (SIL), Jessica (daughter)

I hope you all had wonderful holidays!