Christmas Day 2007 - My First

Here's a play by play of my first Christmas. It was wonderful!

First, Mommy had to continue the tradition set by Grandma. You see, every year, Grandma would snap a photo of Mommy and Aunt Paula coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. Too bad Mommy doesn't have one of these to show you, some are quite hilarious. So, here I am on the stairs Christmas morning:

Here are our stockings hanging on the mantle. Great GrandMom made Daddy's when he was a little boy, that's why it says "Billy". Grammy made Mommy's a few Christmas' ago to match Daddy's. This year, Grammy made one for me! Our names are on the front:

And the years of our births are on the back:

I like mine very much:

Here I am playing with some cool alphabet blocks I got:

And here's a movie clip of me playing with them:



We went to church and here's a picture of Mommy and I in front of the great Manger Scene we have at church. Father Leo carried in baby Jesus during the entrance hymn:

Mommy wanted some shots of me in my pretty Christmas dress, here I am with Daddy:

And here I am with Mommy:

And me, me, me:

I enjoyed a little bit of play time and dancing with Lily:



Grammy, Great Grandmom and Grandy came over for Christmas dinner. What a nice way to end a beautiful day!

My Great Hat!

While Mommy and Daddy were Christmas shopping, they got me a nice, warm, winter hat. What do you think of it?

Christmas Party at Grammy's

We went over to Grammy's house on Sunday 12/23/07 to celebrate Christmas with the Zimmerman family. I got to open my first present:

Ooooh, it's Lily from LeapPad, a singing frog to help me learn to count and my colors in both English and Spanish. Thanks Great Grandmom!

John smiles as I find that the best gift is the bubble wrap itself! He showed me how to make it pop:

Hey Grammy, the Christmas present stuff is fun:

Aunt Kathy and Hans like this present thing too:

Grandy and Great Grandmom relax after all the gift opening is done:

What a wonderful way to enjoy Christmas - with my family that loves me so much!

Xia in her Beads

I like to play with the beads on the Christmas Tree. So, in an effort to curb my enthusiasm, Daddy found some old Mardi Gras beads and hung them on the tree just for me! Here I am sporting the fine fashion:

Weekend Fun

Not much exciting happened over the weekend of 12/15 and 12/16. We went Christmas shopping on Saturday. Here I am conked out in the back of a loaner car we drove around in while our car got its big 60,000 mile work done (OUCH - lots to fix). Mommy hated to give it up because of its awesome heated seats!:

Then, Mommy could not resist taking a shot of the great decorations at this house down town. She loves the diversity of our town:

And some shots of me after church on Sunday. Just being my cute self:

Finally, one that captures all 4 of my teeth!

Eating Mr. Monkey...

Still, not quite ready to let go...

Annie relaxes under the tree - probably hiding from Herbie!:

And, lastly, a short video clip of me playing with my soft and cushy winter jacket - then Mommy tries to push the one finger rule for the tree again. What a joke! Gotta give her props for perseverence:

The Photo Op continues...

So, when we got home from the play date, photo op, Mommy decided to try a little more for some good photos for Christmas photo cards. She figured, since I was all dressed up already, might as well go for it. Here are the shots from that:

First, I'm showing my ability to follow directions that began from Grammy. The instruction is I can touch the tree with "just one finger":

Okay, enough of this one finger stuff! Do they really think I can restrain myself? Pah-leeaase...

Hmmm, let's see if I can get these beads off...

Oh boy, this sure is a lot of fun. Imagine - a tree in the house!

Oh the wonder of it all. Mommy loves my expression in this one:

Okay, okay, enough is enough. Mommy scoops me up before the whole tree comes down:

After all of this photography stuff all day. Mommy and I take a much needed rest together early in the evening. Ahhhh....

Christmas Photo Op

As I said in my previous post, on Sunday 12/9, we had a fun playdate with Cherie and her daughter Ava. Cherie does professional photography on the side and I wanted to share with you some shots from the day. Although I got a little too fussy for some nice, standard, sitting and looking pretty shots - these still turned out great.

First, some candids during my play time with Ava:

Sitting on Mommy's lap as I take in all of Ava's great toys and slowly warm up to diving in and playing with them:

Thanks for letting me play with these cool toys Ava! I especially like your toy phone.

Hmmm, who should I call next?

And now, a stream of photos from the shoot - as you can see, we started out trying for that perfect portrait, but then I ripped off my shoes and just got down right silly. I like how Mommy continues to smile as I squirm and fuss when inside she's thinking - we'll never get a good picture! - and how Daddy thinks if he kisses me enough I'll sit perfectly still. Will these 2 never learn?...

Finally! A great shot: