Friends at Christmas

Ally and Alice are so silly sometimes, but they do cooperate for pictures.

Sometimes - can you believe how mean they look here? I would hate to run into these 2 in a dark alley.

But it is all about the love - and the fact that Alice can pick Ally up!

After about 10 attempts, finally a great picture of them in their new matching pajamas!

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was fabulous! Becky, Ally and I did not travel anywhere, but both sets of grandparents and Aunt Beth came to visit. Wonderful, such a treat to spend the holiday at our house with our extended family.

Grandma and Poppy stayed at a hotel, and the turkey preparations woke Ally up earlier than usual, so we let her watch TV on my iphone until it was time to get up and go into the living room. She was amazing - waited 90 minutes to open gifts!
Becky with the turkey ready to go in the oven.

The stockings - at our house they hang from the transom window and if they are too big they get placed on the couch!

Ally was very excited to see the presents.

All under the tree.

First we watched Ally open her stockings. There was a stuffed cat - Marie from Aristocats (one of Ally's favorite movies).

The proud moms.

It's a spork!

It was really interesting to watch Ally open her stocking. She first took everything out, laid all the wrapped gifts out on the floor and then opened them one by one.

A new DVD - Beauty and the Beast.

I said she opened her stockings and I meant it - plural - she had 2 to open!

Poppy got a Santa beard in his stocking.

After stockings we opened up the largest gift first.

A beautiful framed antique map of Boston from Debbie, Dave & Beth.

Ally was so careful in unwrapping gifts.

It was so sweet to watch her read the book after opening it up. I made her a photo book from her last year at school as a Purple Fish.

Holding up her new sweatshirt from Great Aunt Martha.

Mommy & Ally.

Its hard to see but Ally is wearing a gift - its a "big kid" necklace from Grandma Debbie & Poppy - it came in a jewelry box. Ally loves it! She keeps asking if she can wear it to school next week, and I have said yes about 20 times! But I am a little worried it will get lost or broken at school, so we'll have a talk about that later in the week.

Aunt Martha & Uncle Phil also sent a beautiful bag and stickers.

My mom and Dad drove over to join us for Christmas lunch. Turns out Grandmas wear matching outfits - they look like bookends on either side of Beth in their red mock turtleneck sweaters and black dress pants!

Everyone gathered at the table for our Christmas meal.

Becky made a wonderful pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

Before they left, right after lunch I got a picture of Becky, her parents and Ally.

Later in the day we had our second round of gift opening. Here Ally opened up 2 new games she received from her cousins.

Uncle Frank sent several fun gifts from Disney - this is a singing Ariel doll.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. Our laptop caught a not so nice Christmas virus so I am a little late in posting these, sorry about that. I had to wait until we did a full scan on our desktop computer to make sure it was not infected as well.

My parents were going to stay for a day or so, but with the impending Dec 27 snow storm they left early on the 26th - we felt bad that they drove here 1 day and back the next - they were not even here for 24 hours, but I am so glad they came. It was great to see them and share Christmas with all of our parents.

Thank-you to everyone for the really thoughtful and generous gifts. We feel truly blesssed.

Christmas Eve

Check out Ally's Candy Cane sweater! This is what she wore on Christmas Eve. We love to see Ally in jeans, but she really does not like them - she says "they are just not comfortable" - sometimes, like this time we confess to bribing her. The bribe was a candy cane. So here she is below holding up her candy cane next to her candy cane sweater!

Our traditional Christmas Eve feast of tamales.

After dinner Aunt Beth and Grandma Debbie read 2 versions of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then the Mortimer Mouse Christmas story.

After books it was time for lotion, pajamas and getting ready for bed. Ally told me she needed some "alone time" and wanted to do it herself. And she did she took off her clothes, put lotion all over her body, and got dressed for bed in a pull-up, pajamas, sleep socks and slippers. She was so proud of herself she was bouncing up and down. It was priceless.

Afternoon snow fun

In the afternoon we bundled up and went back out in the snow to play. This time we pulled Ally on her sled to the park!

If you click and make the picture larger you can see the huge smile on her face.

When we got there it was time for more sledding down a small hill. Ready...set... and with a gentle push from mama

Go!!!!!

Then it was on to snow angels - it is such a little one!

Mama wanted to try out the sled too.

And finally a trip to the park is never complete without some time on the swings.

Look she can pump even with no hands!

We had a fun time, and then pulled her back home on the sled. I came inside and Ally and Becky played outside for a bit longer before coming in. We've been busy playing games and working on puzzles this afternoon, and Ally wants to watch Beauty and the Beast with mama when it gets dark.

Its back to work for me tomorrow, but it will be a short week, just 2 days of work and then I am off again for 4 days.

Almost Blizzard of 2010

Today is a snow day! Becky and Ally are on school vacation this week, but we got so much snow here that we closed my company for the day, so I am home too! We have about 12" in the past 24 hours and a few more predicted to fall today. This morning Ally demanded to go out and play in the snow. She was very patient while we got ready and dressed to brave the weather.

Ally hates wearing mittens, but even she did not resist too much this time.

She loved the snow!

A huge pile of snow right outside our house. Ally started to sit on her shovel and slide down on that. I am standing there to show you how tall the pile was.

So we got her sled out.

And with help from mama

Ally had her first sledding experience! Gotta love the city...sledding into the street, I know its not the safest, but I was actually standing in the middle of the street and there are virtually no cars driving in this weather, so we felt it was pretty safe.

All of our neighbors were out shoveling as well, and I think Ally's squeals of delight warmed us all up. They kept pausing in their work to lean on their shovels and smile at us, and Ally. Then there were words about remembering the joy of snow from our childhood. It made digging out from the storm a pleasure.

Ally and I walked around the house - this is our side yard. I wanted to show how deep the show was on Ally.

She worked so hard to walk - she'd get about 3 steps and then fall, and laugh and then get up and do it again! After this walk Ally was very cold, and we had finished shoveling and clearing off the car so we went inside.

And promptly drank hot cocoa!

For the record - the post says Almost Blizzard, because the meteorologists have carefully explained on the news that a snowstorm has certain qualifications it has to meet to be officially a blizzard. We came close, but our winds were sustained at 33 mph and a blizzard has 35 mph or greater. Blizzard or not, it is an awful lot of snow!