Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We had a great day, although Tony didn't get off work till 6am Christmas morning, with both of our families here for what was really Cora's 1st Christmas (last year didn't really count, right?).  We had a great time and Cora loved having so many people around! 

Great-Grandma Yolanda and Cora

Uncle Ernie and Grandma Yolanda opening presents

Grandma and Grandpa opening presents

Cora contemplating whose present to steal next

That's a big ball for such a little girl

Grandma Sharon, Cora, and I opening presents

Cora actually unwrapping her first Christmas present, after which she was more interested in the bag than in the actual item

Grandpa opening his slippers

Ernie and Yolanda with Cora cruising by

Grandma Pat and Grandpa opening gifts 

Tony's family - Ernie, Yolanda, and Sharon

Cora and Daddy

After opening gifts we had dessert - Cora conned A LOT of ice cream from the Grandmas - they said the peppermint (thanks Auntie Barbara!) was her favorite

Ice cream mouth!

Not one, but TWO snack cups!

Riding her new pink pony

She was really into Tony's mini maple syrup bottle!

My CD player mom!

Christmas Stockings

While Tony and I have wanted Christmas stockings for a while, this was our first year with a real mantle, plus Cora - so we wanted stockings to hang on the mantle with care. We looked around and tried to find something that we loved and only found ones that we were ok with, but not perfect. So in desperation I decided to try to make stockings and below is the resulting, unique, product along with our best Christmas gift modeling her Christmas pj's.  Plus I only spent $5.50!

Christmas Fantasy at Tilden Park

Tony had a couple days off so we took Grandma Sharon and Cora to the Christmas Fantasy at the Tilden Park Carousel. We had a good time with a couple rides on the carousel and looking around at the lights and holiday displays they had.

Seeing Santa

We went to Cora's first Christmas party at the Gatlins this week and Cora got to see Santa! There were two distinct stages to her brief stint on his lap:


The "hmm, what do I think about this" stage:

And then she decided that she wasn't curious about him and was ready to GO!

Overall she was a trooper since this was more than an hour past her usual bedtime, and once she was safely in mom's arms again she was happy to watch Santa, just not to get too close.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving fell one year from Cora's due date, although she surprised us and came a smidge early. We had a great day with our parents and celebrated Cora's and Grandpa's birthdays together.

Cora really enjoyed her piece of pumpkin pie and Grandpa helped her blow out the candle.

Fall Leaves

We've been enjoying our first real, true, crunchy leaved fall - Cora likes to pick up the dry leaves and carry them around, compare different ones, hand them to you and take them back...all the fun things a 1 year old can do with dry leaves. Including being plopped in big pile by her photo seeking parents!

Birthday Cake!!!

So if you know me, you know that I don't like food messes, but I thought for her first birthday Cora should get to play with her food and eat it too...hence her first birthday cake. We had a good time, and it wasn't as messy as I had anticipated.