Christmas 2010

It is hard to believe Christmas has come and gone. Sophia enjoyed Christmas shopping for BaBa, Mommy, Nick and Katie. She made beautiful ornaments for her grandparents, aunts and uncles.

We made cookies for Santa but Sophia only left him one cookie and two pieces of cheese. She saw an episode of Imagination Movers where they mentioned Santa needed to go on a diet because his pants did not fit any longer.

We tracked Santa on norad.com. When we first checked in the morning Santa was delivering gifts in Chongqing, China. This was were Sophia was born. To think that we began tracking Santa at the minute he was Chongqing was amazing.

We made ginerbread sleighs to add to the decorations in the house.

Nick and Katie are spending Christmas with us. It is great to have them here. Sophia loves spending time with her brother and sister.

Sophia, Mommy and BaBa went to church and watched the navity pageant. Sophia had one question after another. She is the most curious child I have ever known. I guess that is part of what makes her so smart.

On Christmas morning Sophia woke up at 6:45 and began to ring her "Christmas Bell" saying that Christmas is here... wake up. She woke up Katie and Nick and we all went downstairs to see what Santa left.

Santa left Sophia a big dinosaur from Dinosaur Train along with the Dinsosaur Train trainset. She was thrilled. He left Nick a Harry Potter lego set and Katie a pillow pet. After playing a while we opened gifts from each other. Sophia loved everything she got. Katie got her a horse and Nick got her a remote control car. She got more dinosaurs for her Dinosaur train, a horse calender and a leapster game from us.

We then went to Grandma Bev's for Christmas dinner. It was nice to spend the day with all of Steve's family. We opened more gifts there. Sophia got horse sheets and a blanket for her bed from Grandma Bev and Pop Pop and horse posters from Grandma Beadle. She also got another stocking filled with goodies, stamps for her scrapbook, jelly belly filled crayons and a coloring book. Sophia had a blast playing with her cousin Emma.

I am thankful for the time we get to spend with family. As our own parents are aging we are thankful for the time we do get together. Pop Pop had an "off" day today. He wasn't feeling well. It is hard to see the toll Parkinsons takes on the body.

Christmas in Connecticut

We traveled up to Connecticut on December 17 to celebrate Christmas with Anne's family. We spent the night at Grandma Barb's on Friday night. We were greeted with the typical bag of gifts for Sophia. Sophia presented Grandma with her typical gift of a bag of M&Ms they share together.We headed to Linda's house on Saturday after breakfast. George and his family joined us on Sunday for a wonderful Christmas dinner. We headed home on Monday.

It was great to be all together for Christmas. The kids all enjoyed playing together. They get along so well. There were plenty of gifts to open and good food to eat. Sophia got the gum ball machine she has been longing for from Uncle George. She got a game for her leapster from Aunt Linda as well as things to decorate her room. Grandma Barb gave her stamps for her scrapbook, soft pajama's and a doll.

It was a joyous day after what has been a very difficult month for us. Grandma Barb has breast cancer. She will have a lumpectomy on January 13th. At this point the tumor is small. We are hoping it has not spread but we won't know until later in January after the pathology reports come back. We are hoping that this is an easy surgury and that she makes it through without any complications.

December Update

December was an extremely busy month. We prepared for Christmas. We wanted Katie to help decorate the Christmas tree but on the one weekend Katie was down Anne was away at a scrap booking retreat. Sophia had a perfect solution. We put the tree up one day and decorated around the house. Then when Katie came down they decorated the tree together. It worked out well.

Sophia and BaBa went to Virginia for a holiday dinner with the re-enacting group on December 3rd. They had a blast. They got to town early and found a huge playground and then went into town. There was horse drawn carriage ride in town. Sophia loved this. Sophia and BaBa also saw their first snowflakes that day.

Sophia talked with Santa three times - once at the mall in late November, then at the train station, and once at the Bass Pro Shops. She asked for a gum ball machine, trains, and dinosaur train toys.

BaBa took Sophia and Katie to the train station to visit Santa. They had a blast. Sophia loves trains and never tires of seeing them and climbing on them.

We got a little snow on December 16th. It wasn't much but was enough to go sled riding with Boba pulling the sled. Sophia laughed so much. Her laughter is contagious. If we could all get such pleasure from the simple things in life we would all be much happier.

November update

November started with the big birthday celebrations. Sophia is growing up so quickly. She now has a chore list and has begun to earn an allowance.

November included the typical fall activities like raking leaves and preparing for the holidays.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma Bev's house. It was nice to be together for a delicious dinner.

Sophia's favorite cat. Noelle (No-No) wasn't feeling well which meant a trip to the vet and the administering of now daily meds. It is no fun trying to give this cat medicine every day but she seems to be more "regular" with it. Sophia was very worried about No-No and took good care of her while she was sick.

We went to a model train show the day after Thanksgiving. Sophia loved the trains. She even was able to control a Thomas train. She picked this up quickly and wanted to return to that set up to drive the train several times.

Sophia loves stuffed animals. She surrounds herself with them every night. When Sophia is put to bed at night she tends to play quietly in her room for almost an hour. One night she took out many stuffed animals and piled them up on her bed. She feel asleep surrounded by these animals.