Christmas 2009

We had such a wonderful Christmas weekend this year! Wednesday night we drove up to Philly to celebrate with Nana and Pop. Thursday was spent making a chocolate cake with Nana. Josie had been asking Nana for weeks if they could make a chocolate cake. Here is the evidence of how much she "helped":

After a long bath and good scrubbing, we got decked out in our holiday finest and attended a wonderful Christmas Eve service at Nana and Pop's church. Nana, Josie, and I even procured front pew seats. Following church, Josie "helped" Pop set up the train under the Christmas tree:

Finally, Josie and daddy fixed a plate of goodies for Santa and the reindeer:

Josie went to bed rather late (after 10!) on Christmas Eve, so we weren't too surprised that she slept in until after 8 on Christmas morning. After reminding her what day it was (she was SO groggy!) and getting dressed, we went downstairs to see what was in store for us. Play my little version of "Where's Waldo?" with this picture - except look for Josie:

Josie asked just about everyone if she could help open their gifts. Luckily most of us were adults about it and allowed her. Here she is helping Pop:
Every single thing that Josie received was perfect! She had the biggest smile on her face all morning (and most of the afternoon since we opened gifts for over 4 hours!). I have a zillion pictures of her cheesing it up with each gift. I won't post them all here, but a small selection follows:


Later that evening, other uncles, aunts, cousins and Great-Grandma came for dinner. Here is daddy with one of his brothers and two of his uncles:
Much later that night, we snapped a self-portrait:
On Saturday, we loaded up the truck and drove an additional 2 hours to Aunt Bobbi's house. Josie spent the rest of the day clinging to her cousins and terrorizing the puppy! On Sunday, Grammy, Eric, and Great-Grandma and Great Grandpa arrived to celebrate Christmas number two with us.

Here is Josie posing in front of Aunt Bobbi's tree:
Opening presents with cousin Rachel:
Modeling the awesome ballerina/princess dress and accessories from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa:
Finally, the following week, Christmas, round 3 arrived. We were able to enjoy Christmas with Uncle Brian, Aunt Neely, and cousins Jack and Eli. Here are the photogenic ones under the tree:
All three brothers, wives, and kids (not quite as photogenic as the children!):
Overall, the holiday season was wonderful! We were fortunate to get to spend quite a bit of time with pretty much all of our family. We are grateful and blessed.