Violet Mary: December 2008

It's sad that you spend months preparing for one day and Christmas ALWAYS goes so quickly. We went to Aunt D's on Christmas eve and spent the night at my parents so we could wake up on Christmas morn with the fam.

Vi had fun playing with Aunt D's 90lb golden retriever, Casey. She was so patient with Violet's enthusiastic (bordering on annoying) attention. Every few minutes she'd run over to her and point out her ears, eyes, teeth and nose and then squeal with delight at her new furry friend. Vi also enjoyed her "dinner" supplied by another of Aunt Shawnie's brilliant recipes and she was pretty worn out after eating 2 bagels topped with sun dried tomatoes, garlic and cheese and two cookies. We put her to sleep in her pack n play and enjoyed a lovely dinner of lasagna. (Vi was too sleepy to wait up for dinner).

After driving to Grandma and Popop's house (with Vi hammin' it up in her car seat at midnight) we all snuggled in for a calm winter's night...that is until Nana got up 5 times and watched her Christmas story on a loop on high volume all night. ;) I really don't believe Vi got a sound sleep - but it was fun to wake up all together on Christmas morning!

Grandma made it a very special day with a yummy Christmas breakfast and dinner (needless to say SHE didn't have a very relaxing holiday...sorry mom). Violet and Abel had fun playing together and coloring and then opening a mountain of gifts from everyone. Vi also found time to chase Poncho (their oversized cat) and entertain the crowd while dancing to a rather scary singing santa.

Despite a meltdown caused by a pair of purple, princess shoes during present time - Vi had a wonderful Christmas and she can't wait to celebrate again with the Downies!

After taking a good nap today (and catching up on what she missed in sleep the past few days) Vi greeted me and Rich with a "Hi Guys!" when we went to get her. She never ceases to make me laugh...

Merry Christmas, Viley. Your second Christmas was a memorable one. I hope the third one is just as fun (minus the meltdown) and hopefully you can help me decorate cookies next year (while watching Little Women and sipping cocoa).