Yes, it’s Christmas. As Shane has said we have had a lovely quiet family Christmas, just the three of us. The 2 1/2 hours of travel it would have taken to be with family on Christmas Eve would have just been to hard with Shane having to work yesterday as well. While we both missed seeing family, having this morning with Allyssa in our home to open her presents made it extremely special to us.

Of course this day has taken it’s toll on Allyssa. Playing with her new presents has tired her out as you can see here. But look how angelic she looks while she sleeps. (Okay, all children look like little angels while they sleep, but to me she is the most precious little angel.)

I have to agree with Shane in that this is the best Christmas, I’ve ever had. While it may have been lean in material things it had the things that matter most, loved ones and joy. Thank you Shane for the wonderful words, and thank you for being you. It may have taken us a while to find each other, but I’ve never doubted that your my Mr. Right.

Allyssa is crawling. She’s been doing it since early December. And strangely enough, I don’t recall seeing her crawl backwards first. Of course that could be to the month we spend in the hotel, were we didn’t let her down on their floor. We kept her up on the king sized bed or in her walker, or in her pack ‘n play. I just had no way of knowing what kind of chemicals they may have used on their floors or how clean they actually were.

She is growing so much even if she’s remaining on the petite side of things. On the 19th when she had her second flu shot, she was 16 lb 3-4 oz and 26 3/4 in. She enjoys drinking from a glass, but still has problems figuring out a sippy cup. She also has liked everything she’s been given to eat, from beans to spaghetti (yes we pureed it for her). She loves ice cream and Red Vines licorice. She is also a big fan of potatoes, any way she can get them.

A few days ago, we felt the rough edges of her first tooth cutting thru. For the most part it hasn’t bothered her too much, or at least not yet.

We look forward to seeing family for a late Christmas when we are next in the Holmen area. It looks like it’s going to be the first weekend in January, but while we couldn’t be with them in person, they were in our thoughts on this beautiful first Christmas with our daughter.

Yes, it’s Thanksgiving already, and we have been able to spend it with family. Yesterday, we drove back to Trempealeau so that we could be with family. This morning Shane made homemade Parmesan herb rolls which we baked at my dad’s for Thanksgiving.

At dad’s we had our traditional huge family Thanksgiving dinner. It was wonderful to see family which we haven’t seen in months. I had a great time and it was wonderful to see my cousins, aunts, and uncle. My cousin Jean Ann has undertaken the planning and organization of our traditional huge dinner since my mother died. And this is greatly appreciated by me. As strange as it sounds I think her taking over the planning as made things easier and less likely to have family squabbles over it.

Personally I also enjoy the fact that she has added meatballs to the menu. I know that I certainly appreciate the fact that I don’t have to either eat a bit of turkey (which I absolutely hate) or do without meat for the meal.

We stayed at dad’s until almost 7 pm at which time we went to Shane’s mom’s. His family had decided that they weren’t getting together en masse. When we arrived at Karen’s we found her on floor. She had fallen and wasn’t able to get up on her own. She had taken a nap there for almost two hours when we arrived. Both Shane and myself were needed to help her back on her feet. While she has Life Alert, she wasn’t wearing it when she fell. Hopefully she’ll remember to wear it more in the future.