...And may all your Christmases be white

Early Christmas morning, we opened the curtains to a surprise - a little dusting of snow falling from the sky. Not much - about the amount Austin gets in a good February - but they'd predicted only a slim chance of the dusting in the first place, so we were pretty pleased with our white Christmas. We shuffled upstairs, opened presents with the baby, celebrated our powdered sugar-covered wintry scene. Around 9, I put the littlest elf down for her nap, snagged a little warm cranberry bread and coffee, and settled into some stockings and presents with the Miller clan. Then, around 10:00, the scene changed. Wonderful, fat flakes started drifting downward from the heavens. It snowed...and snowed...and snowed. For the rest of the day. No blizzard, very little wind (a rarity on the Amarillo plains). It was beautiful. We had no choice but to stay right where we were - in our PJs, fire roaring, Christmas movies on, with a warm Christmas mug of coffee in hand - and enjoy the snowfall.

Later that afternoon, we bundled up our little lady (baby it was COLD outside) and introduced her to snow:

It was a bit of an arctic tundra out there. We didn't stay long.

But the next day...well, the next day was really perfect.

Snow, in case you didn't realize, makes dogs frisky.

Maddie has always been a snow dog. She was just a few months old for her first winter in Lexington, Virginia, and she bounded through that stuff with gusto, even though she was the size of a guinea pig. At 9 years old, she doesn't miss a beat (though she has slept pretty soundly since we got home).

Georgia's first snow day. As usual, she keeps her sentiments closely guarded.

Meet Clarence, my and Eliza's first-ever snowman. He has a carrot nose, yucca pod mouth, and two eyes made out of milk-bone dog biscuits. We've been sent a few pictures of Clarence in the days since we built him. Snowmen, I've learned, don't age gracefully.

Goodnight, pretty Christmas plains. Thank you, Daddy Jack and Cita, for a wonderful Christmas. And for letting our dogs, our baby, our baby stuff, our Christmas stuff, our stuff stuff, trail all over the house while we were there. It felt like there was no containing the toys/baby shoes/clothes/whathaveyou that were shed, collected, deposited elsewhere as we traipsed in and out of the house, up and down the stairs. And thanks for ordering up that beautiful snow just for us - a magical first Christmas for our new little family of 3.

May your days be merry & bright (pt.1)

Merry merry friends far and wide! I hope you all had a lovely holiday.

We sure did; it was pretty much the perfect Christmas. This year, we were headed to West Texas for a nice Christmas break. Before we left, little E. had her own very lovely Austin Christmas at my mom and stepdad's house. Lots of WAY too generous presents for all three of us, more vino, delicious food, and 3 sets of grandparents and great grandparents doting on her every second. This little girl lives a very charmed life.

(rare headband appearance...I generally prefer her to rock her sweet little bald head, but I loved this one. It came with this precious outfit from her stepgrandmother.)

Eliza's least favorite gift: the babysitter money - a gift of a "night out" from my mom to us.

Everytime my grandmother sees Eliza: "Ohhhh, you PRECIOUS thing"

The nice thing about a Christmas away is, you get it all done early and once you leave you can just enjoy the season. Of course, the morning we left was a true low point in our marriage (as most mornings before we leave for big trips are). We are very different creatures - 95% of the time to our advantage as a couple - but packing for trips is one area where we are just flat out NOT compatible. Maybe that's something we can work on in the new year. Once we are in the car it's always as if it never happened, but let's just say at 8 AM on December 22nd the Christmas spirit had been sucked right out of the Miller house.

This sums up our pre-Christmas travel meltdown nicely:

(Actually, she didn't cry much at all the whole 8 hour drive...until we got to Amarillo, and then every time she was placed in the car seat thereafter she looked like this. Pobrecita.)

A few snippets of our Panhandle Christmas:

Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go:

Mulled wine and a little shoe eating over at Auntie Em's new casa

Playdate with Lisle, E's Amarillo friend (just 6 days younger). They hold hands.

Christmas Eve is my favorite Eve in the whole year. I just love it, and I become a total sap; I've been known to drag my very own Saint Nick to two Christmas Eve services in one night. I am so overcome by the joyful music, the celebration, the singing choirs of angels, the sweet Silent Night. Last year during Christmas Eve service, I was tearing up listening to the music, thinking of the baby I was just starting to feel wiggling around, and prayed for it/her to be safe and healthy. One year later, with my happy, healthy baby girl wiggling restlessly in my arms, chewing anything she could get her chubby little fingers on, I counted every single blessing, prayed for each little and big worry on my mind and just burst into tears, almost beside myself in the middle of the service. In other words, a blubbering Christmas fool. Overcome with emotion, and all the many blessings and people I am thankful for this year.

{especially this}

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I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted of Eliza's first Christmas morning. While I love attempting to capture the little every day moments of our life with my camera, sometimes I need to be IN the moment. Thus, I totally neglected my camera and I'm really kicking myself now. Mama fail. But it felt right at the time, so, c'est la vie. Thank goodness for the iPhone, and our new video camera - one of Eliza's Christmas presents from us. She'll thank us one day!

Ah, Christmas Eve: a time for little ones to stay up way past their bedtime in their fancy Christmas best.

And for parents to stay up even later, enjoying too much just the right amount of delicious champagne, festive food and vino at the Millers' annual Christmas Eve party...

Ho Ho Ho. Party winds down. Watching It's a Wonderful Life. Santa makes an appearance. Ho Ho Ho. More wine? Don't mind if I do...

Ah, Christmas morning: Managing the repercussions of the previous night's poor judgment, clouded by festive merriment making, is slightly easier with a wide-eyed baby. Even if they are the reason you don't ever. sleep in. again.

Wrapping paper. Score.

Surrounded by the haul. She has no idea what it all means, but as witnessed at her playdates and parties, girlfriend loves her some new toys.

This is where I add in my obligatory disclaimer that Christmas is, obviously, TRULY, not about the haul. My wheels have been turning on the best ways to introduce giving to those in need into her Christmas traditions when she gets a little older. But this Christmas was all about our families coming together around the new baby, and I'm very proud of us, and all our families for keeping the "haul" under control. With four sets of generous grandparents/great-grandparents, and the first baby on all sides' first Christmas, I was bracing myself, imagining an epic IKEA run on December 27th, returning home with numerous new toy storage solutions for Saint Nicholas to put together while he watched bowl games.

Oh, and it also took a LOT of self-restraint on Santa's part; I heard at one point he actually returned a large plastic thing or two to the North Pole, citing a lost mind as the reason for return. The mantra of the season: Babies do not need one bazillion plastic things to keep them busy! Repeat.

Anyway, she received SO many sweet, thoughtfully chosen, timeless gifts she will have now and much longer from now, and of course, plenty of nice new toys too. But we are not overrun and our living room still looks like a living room, while still providing hours more fun for the sweet gal of the moment. Thank you, thank you to our wonderful families for all her precious gifts!

Christmas with your own little baby, and your family, is an entirely new experience. So special. So different than any Christmas before it.
And hard to put into words. But, it looks a lot like this:

(Reading our big Christmas gift - an Eliza photo book from us to our families).

A magical first Christmas, from start to finish.

Hope yours was equally wonderful. Part 2 coming as soon as I can get the rest of the pictures uploaded; camera is being finnicky...just finish off the song in the title and you'll know where it's headed. This little lady really DOES lead a charmed life - her first white Christmas right out of the gates?! I waited 30 years for a proper white Christmas.

Wishing you all many merry and bright days in the new year ahead! xo

Lucky seven

(Apologies to those who have been following from the beginning, but as we've acquired many new readers since then, I thought I'd retell this timely story).

Last Christmas was our most memorable to date.

December 23, I had my routine check-up, where my doctor had promised to do a quick, unscheduled sonogram (16 weeks pregnant) to take a quick peek at the baby's gender for our Christmas surprise. My doctor put it on a card and sealed the envelope. Christmas Eve, I went to a children's store (Janie and Jack) and picked out two outfits for Christmas.

I told them to wrap up whatever the card said. Christmas morning, we opened all our presents under the tree, and then we opened this:

And I promptly burst into tears, because that is what pregnant ladies do. We put the outfit back in the box, and Skyped the Millers in Colorado so we could open the present with them. Then we re-wrapped the box, took it to my mom and John's in our pajamas, and then to my grandparents' house. Three happy reveals.

Last Christmas, we were preparing the nursery for painting, beginning to think about cribs and summoning the courage to go into BuyBuyBaby. I was starting to feel little flutters of our sweet baby girl, most memorably at church on Christmas Eve. Becoming parents was becoming real. The anticipation of it all was so exciting - magical even - and June felt like an eternity away.

The only thing that could top that magical Christmas would be this scrumptious 7-month old, wearing the dress I picked out for her, before I even knew her.

And so, here we are, at 7 months. She's talking up a storm. It sounds like real talking now, with inflections and whatnot, but of course it doesn't make any sense to us. She seems to know what it means, and is very confident in what she's saying, gasping for breath like it's an urgent matter. Everything she does these days seems to be with intention. She has looked at her Daddy entering the room and said "Hiiiii da da!" more than once, but of course we can't be sure that's what she's really saying. She also squeals when I say "yayy!" in the same pitch, and repeats tones and rhythms of what we say. I can say a line from her favorite book anywhere we are and it evokes a knowing smile. Preciosa.

(By the way...I fully realize none of you care about this level of babyhood minutae...but I have to put it here or else I'll forget. I'm terribly forgetful these days.)

I keep forgetting to "sign" with her as much as I'd intended, but we are communicating plenty. Her new favorite trick is "clucking" her tongue, especially after you do it first. She's very proud of this. Lately it's just the three of us clucking back and forth at one another. She also loves to have important conversations with herself standing up in the mirror.

In addition to eating remotes, iPhones, and chalkboards, baby girl is doing great with Cheerios and other small, easily dissolved finger foods - she has a great little pincer grasp. Will drink water from a sippy straw cup when she wants to, though isn't always terribly interested. The dogs (as I anticipated) have a newfound appreciation for their sissy, now that Cheerios have entered the picture. I have a newfound appreciation for them, as mama NEVER has to sweep up after a meal.

Suddenly it's all happening SO fast.

Eliza has two bottom teeth now. I'll give you one guess as to what she wants for Christmas:

They say their eye color settles in around now (glad something is staying put...), so here's the verdict:

Growing: Miss priss has had a major growth spurt, and is jumping percentiles in height and weight (a little longer than heavy). A few months back, we thought there was NO way this dress would fit our petite little lady, who was still wearing some 3 month clothes at 5 months. Fair, blondie hair seems to be coming in longer each day, but she rocks the bald well. Her friend Blake likes to rub it for good luck ;).

On the move: Lately she has been all over the place in her crib, including on her tummy. Today, she pulled herself up to sit from lying down, which means when we get back from Amarillo we will be dropping her mattress. She has been pulling to stand from sitting for awhile now, but we weren't worried about it since she couldn't sit from lying down. We are on the brink of a whole new set of challenges, I fear. Little E. still prefers to stand if given the option, but seems to be getting close to mobility on the crawling front. We shall see how that unfolds...but for the record I LOVE a sitting, non-mobile baby!

She is inquisitive and curious, and very outgoing when it comes to her pint-sized friends, but can also be a little reserved right now with strangers. She is friendly, never fearful or upset, but sometimes a bit quiet when she's uncertain or overwhelmed. Spunky, yet delicate, precise, dainty. Her personality seems to unfold in a different way each day. She is a DREAM baby.

I am terribly smitten with the cuddly, affectionate snuggles she now doles out; for me, they are the best part of this month (last month she was heartcrushingly, fiercely independent pre-nap, pushing away from me and fussing to be put down). She takes her thumb, and settles into my chest as I sing to her - poorly - before her nap. She gives me dazed, sleepy "hugs" when I get her up, curling in and grabbing hold of me tight. We rock a little bit for a moment, to ease her out of her groggy state. It doesn't get much sweeter.

Happy 7 months, wonderful, precious Eliza. Last Christmas, we could have never, ever dreamed up anything as perfect as you.

A very Merry Christmas to our families, our friends and our readers far and wide!

xo,
lmm