Lydia has a special message for her cousin, Liam. He was born on New Year's Eve 2006, and today is his birthday!!!

Christmas Day has come and gone, but the memories will remain forever!

Our Christmas day began with a call from Lydia's Omi and Opa, calling all the way from Thailand! They told Lydia how much they love and miss her, and wished her a wonderful Christmas! Outside the world was still white, and the sun was shining brightly. A little while later Grammy and Poppy came over and we had a very nice Christmas meal together. We then decided to open presents! The first present Lydia opened was...

A princess castle tent from Grammy and Poppy! None of us were sure what she would think of it...but she absolutely loves it! She found the door and went inside in a matter of seconds, and proceeded to smile through the mesh window and giggle. A few minutes later we opened her second present (a book with puzzle pieces that fit into each page), and she went back into her tent to read it.

Video below...

Then Liam, Kelly and Joshua arrived and we continued all of the present-opening fun. What fun Lydia will have with her new things!

Liam brought over one of his favorite new things.

Lydia liked it too! She played with it for a minute, and Liam looked a little concerned about that! He was sweet about it though.

But meanwhile Lydia was offered another gift...a baby doll from Kelly and Joshua! (She has a stroller too!)

Grammy read to us from a book called "Cat Heaven" - a book Kelly gave to her.

Liam and Lydia toppled over the tent while playing together!

We gave Liam a bean bag chair. Rather than sit in it, he thought it would be fun to steamroll Aunt Nicky! He took me out by surprise a couple of times!

Merry Christmas 2009!

Merry Christmas!

Well, 24 hours later, Dorothy #2 appears to be doing okay! (I keep checking on her to be sure she's swimming around like she's supposed to be... Sometimes she just hangs out near the bottom of the tank. Makes me wonder... I figure the pet store has a 14-day guarantee on these things for a reason!)

Today we had a great Christmas Day meal with Grammy and Poppy, and Aunt Kelly, Uncle Joshua and Cousin Liam came over later to open presents and to play! More photos and video from the day will come soon... It's time to retire. Christmas is exhausting!

Tonight we went to the Christmas Eve service at church. It's traditionally a family service, so there's no nursery for the kiddos. Lydia did pretty well sitting through the hour long service. We came prepared with her snack and a book and a toy and a blanket, etc. There was a lot of music from the choir, which she seemed to enjoy. She was squirmy at times, but overall, a good little attendee.

After church, we went to Grammy and Poppy's house to have dinner and play. Lydia received one of her Christmas presents while she was there. Do you want to know what it was?

Her very own pet goldfish! Her name is Dorothy. Dorothy is the name of Elmo's goldfish. Lydia sees Dorothy on Elmo's segment of Sesame Street when Grammy is babysitting, and Grammy is convinced Lydia loves Dorothy on the show. Dorothy lives in a simple glass fish bowl, exactly like this one.
When Grammy presented Lydia with her new pet, Lydia was happy! She wanted to see inside the bowl and touch the bowl and to watch Dorothy intently. So cute!

Now I have to tell you the truth... This is actually Dorothy #2 already.

On Wednesday Grammy purchased the original Dorothy... Dorothy #1. By Wednesday evening Dorothy was...well, let's just say not feeling very well. So yesterday Grammy had to purchase Dorothy #2, who so far appears to be much healthier!

After watching Dorothy awhile, Lydia realized that all she was going to do was swim around a bit and then float, so she moved on. Here she is trying to get the lock off the kitchen cabinet. She worked hard on that for awhile.

And randomly lying on the floor, as she does so often. I love it when little girls have no idea they're all dressed up, and they roll all over the floor in their special clothes!

After some more fun and play, Lydia returned to check on Dorothy.

By the time we left Grammy and Poppy's place, it was an hour past Lydia's bedtime. With ice on the roads, it took awhile to get home. About half way there, Lydia konked out. Dorothy #2, however, was probably WIDE awake! She rode home with us, and was probably shaken around a little bit!

Guess what the state of Texas got for Christmas? Snow! And rain, and sleet and ice, and freezing temperatures and 40 mile per hour winds. You never really get pure snow here, but the snow itself did come down pretty hard for several hours this afternoon.

Lydia received her very own special message from Santa! He even knew that she wants more books for Christmas! Click on this link to see Lydia's message from Santa: http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/42cb173b29973fd745646ce31eaad8c4

Tonight was Lydia's 1st 2nd Christmas!

Uncle Mike, Aunt Katie and Cousin Warner came over because we won't be together on Christmas Day this year. It was a lot of fun, and we even managed to get a few memorable moments on film.

"Now wait just a second... When did Mommy put this bow in my hair and how come I just noticed it? Nice try, Mommy, but it's coming out!" -Lydia

"Ha ha, my little sweet pea! I put it in there exactly 2 minutes and 16 seconds ago and you just noticed it! That's a record! I bested you!" -Mommy

The best part of the evening may have been just after we opened a certain gift from Mike and Katie. The gift included a framed picture of Warner. The moment Lydia recognized the baby in the picture was sitting right across from her - her cousin Warner - she did a little shiver and made her excited sound and was from then on so fascinated by the connection! Watch the videos below the photo.

Uncle Ollie and Warner

2 more Christmases to go this year! We will spend the real Christmas Day with Lydia's Grammy and Poppy, and then we get to have another one in January with Omi and Opa! It seems appropriate that we celebrate the birth of Jesus longer than just one day anyway!

At Home Depot in my pj's!
When it's cold, you skip the cute ensembles and aim for warm legs and feet!


A bad hair day! Otherwise known as Bed Head. Don't worry Lydia, it happens to all of us.

And another case of bed head after her nap today...

Today we braved a family trip to the mall. It will likely be Oliver's ONLY trip to the mall this holiday season. He can now check one item off his holiday vacation list: "Go to the mall, see the decorations and be a part of the holiday bustle." Check. As for me, I love it and today was easily my 10th or so trip to the mall this holiday season. (Well, I do work within walking distance of the Dallas Galleria...the i-ching of holiday-themed malls.) All things considered, our mall trip was fun and not too chaotic. Definitely it required 2 parents and a lot of team work. Lydia would have rather walked through the mall on her own and done whatever she pleased, but alas she was stroller-bound and occasionally frustrated. The best cure for an antsy Lydia in her stroller is to JUST KEEP MOVING! Don't ever stop strolling! Otherwise she will arch her back, whine a bit, and try to escape! You've gotta ensure things are constantly interesting! And then she'll do pretty well. Oh, and bring her Puff snacks.

We did take a ride on the big carousel! You may remember she had a Carousel Party here for her first birthday in April. I am so happy we did that - great memories and it made for great birthday pictures! Surprisingly, today there wasn't a long line to ride, but it did take awhile to get everyone situated and secure. While we waited, Lydia was super squirmy and wanted to climb down the seat and run off, so it was quite an effort to keep her entertained. Once the ride started, she was completely still and just watched things pass by and didn't make a sound. She was fascinated. An added touch today (thanks Stonebriar Mall) the carousel was playing Christmas music this time! It was kind of funny to hear Ave Maria done carousel-organ style.

10 days until Christmas!

Lydia loves this purple silk flower she found in a vase in the guest room. Naturally after awhile she'll set it down to do something else, and later when she finds it again? So happy! There's my purple flower!