XMAS!

lots of posting going on. i thought about taking mommy's advice and starting fresh for the new year, but even if i did that i'd already be behind. whoops! so, screw it. it's february, here's x-mas. i'm whipping up a blog tornado, or blognado, if you will, so fasten your hatches and batten down those seatbelts, or whatever. slowly sip your coffee in a comfortable desk chair. go ahead, recline.whatevs.

tons of stuff to get up, and to keep me on track, there may be more days of just pics, because quite frankly writing is a chore. and while we're talking about pictures, the photoblog is back up and running, with apologies to mems who will have seen a lot of the entries in book form via one of her x-mas presents. that's how i reward my supporters- repetition and redundancy! i call them the three r's(redundancy is in there twice, mathletes). happy x-mas!

beatrix marie! what are you still doing in bed?

"i thought i'd sleep in today. take it easy. i'm practically eighteen months old, you know."

"when i think about everything i've accomplished- growing some teeth, running, learning new words... i feel pretty satisfied."

"i may not get out of bed at all today. what's left to do?"

well, there are definitely some days i wish i could pull the covers up to my chin and just lie there, like i'm dead, at the bottom of a dark hole where no one can see me and no one bothers me and it's quiet and comforting and isolated and i'm all alone and

"zzz... zzzz... zzz..."

"oh. i'm sorry, daddy. were you saying something?"

i was saying that if you spend the whole week in bed, you'll miss all the presents.

"PRESENTS?!?"

the view was, as usual, beautiful. and with teed's help bebe added the word 'mountain' to her vocabulary. whenever we passed by a window she would point and say "up! mountain!"

she spent lots of time hanging out on ramona's bed.

and keeping an eye on that mountain.
"still there. still up."

she kept up to speed on her gossip with mems and the internet.

"i can't believe katy perry is going steady with russell brand. he's so fuzzy and gross looking..."


every year teed and i trek out to the woods to cut down a good sized tree for the living room. a good size, in this case, usually means a thirteen footer. last year we found a tree farm that had huge trees, so we thought we were set. after you cut it down and drag it to the shack, they shake it off and wrap it in a plastic hair-net-type-thing, easy-peasy for the top of your car. well, we went back this year to find that most people, because the smaller trees were scarce, had chopped the tops off of the larger trees. this presented us with a ton of great 'stump' options, but not so much by way of a large tree. after much debate, we settled on the best one we could find.

this was a special year of sorts, as the job of light-master was passed from teed to aunt marge, now known as the light-mistress. it's easily the suckiest job, and i say this even in light of the fact that i get covered with needles, sap, dirt, old bird's nests, probable animal poop of an indiscernible origin, etc. all while putting the tree up. i would cut, haul, and stand twenty trees rather than have to do the lights for one. it just sucks. aunt marge willingly assumed the title, and took to it with great aplomb. the results were stupendous.

behold- the mighty Tree of Christmas.



fast-forward to x-mas morning!

bebe was still a bit young to grasp the true meaning of christmas (getting stuff!) so she tended to focus on the first few gifts she opened, not realizing that they were piling up behind her.

we pushed on ahead without her.

a little personal hygiene before breakfast never hurts.

like lots of kids, bebe gets fixated on one food and eats it exclusively. at x-mas, it was plastic cars.

breakfast, lunch, and dinner- nothing but plastic cars. we had some real tough diaper changes around this time. but look at how happy she is!



some other faves from the department of presents (not to be confused with the 'present' department, of which this blog is in no way part of. we deal strictly in the past. particularly ancient history).

"does it go up to 11?"

man, she looks like billy joe from green day! thanks aunt marge!



one of the highlight presents was a book of photos and narrative of uncle ben's proposal to aunt marge.

we sure love uncle ben!

not to be outdone, beatrix got right into one of her own books.

aunt marge kept reading

...and beebs kept pace.



what do you think of the A's chances this year?

it's hard to say what present was bebe's favorite, but she sure lovedthis new doll. for those of you that haven't heard, absolutely unprompted by any of us, she named it 'josh.'

feeling a little post-holiday let down?



i bet some hugs with your babies will make you feel better!

MWAH!

one of my favorite presents:

when uncle chuck, aunt karen, and carly and james got there, they brought a special present for bebe. it was a rocking chair that belonged to teed and uncle chuck's mommy when she was a little girl.

bebe took right to it and was rocking like a pro in no time.

big ricky hung out by the dogfood in her dumptruck. that's all.

some tired ladies at the end of the day! and we still had more x-mas to go!


once we got back home, it was time to head out to grammie and grampa glen's house.

another cool present was the mouse hat. uncle ben and aunt marge really came through with some thoughtful, fun presents.

hey bebe! what does x-mas at grammie and grandpa glen's mean?

"PRESENTS!"
you've learned well.


gratuitous but cute as hell riding along in the car pics:

annnnd... we're there!

one of mommy's favorite bebe presents was this dress.

one of bebe's faves was this water bottle, just like the one mommy uses!

hey you ladies! there's still another present!

"there is?!?"
auntie jamie was off with uncle dwayne, but she left her present for bebe with the fam!

a stroller and new baby! bebe was so excited to get a stroller she just pushed thing back and forth for an hour, running down anyone who got in her way. she didn't name this baby, so i started calling it "the color purple" and finally "oprah." i think beebs decided on "purple" eventually, to go with one of her other new babies, "pink."

so ends x-mas! sure am glad that's over, a month later...