December began with her first experience of rain (yes, we live in San Diego and her first experience with rain was at almost a year old). She loved helping me hold the umbrella handle.
We went to Home Depot and chose Annalise's first Christmas tree - not too bushy, not too skimpy. After we brought it home, Annalise enjoyed staring at it in wonder - a giant tree in the middle of our house! Decorating it was fun, but there are a startling number of ornaments that, although structurally and asthetically attractive to babies, are not actually built to be baby resistant. We loved explaining to Annalise the meaning of Christmas and some of the ornaments we hang to celebrate Jesus. Perhaps next year she'll understand a little more.
We enjoyed our tree all week. Then we were horrified to discover that it was dying (a trifle prematurely). Who knew that Home Depot had a Christmas tree return policy? Here we are choosing our second, and much more robust, Christmas tree.
We enjoyed an early Christmas with my parents. Annalise discovered how to pull gifts out of gift bags. I fell in love with her Christmas dress - can she wear it again next year?
We also did our own "Christmas morning" at home on Dec. 23rd before we left for San Jose. Annalise's gift was a cozy coupe we found on Craigslist, and she loves it! Notice how the bottom 1/2 of our tree lacks ornaments. That's because throughout December Annalise would walk over to the tree, pull off an ornament, and I'd hang it higher above where she could reach. The end result - a half-decorated tree.
We spent Christmas in San Jose with our family there. The visit was unfortunately punctuated with doctor visits for both Annalise and I who had been sick for a ridiculously long length of time and started getting worse (ear infections and sinus infections can do that). Dave also managed to contract some other type of flu, and we successfully contaminated all of our family - our extra special Christmas gift to them.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone! We are praying that this year we will give more of our lives and selves to the wonderful God we love and serve.
3 comments:
Hi Tracy,
I love your pictures. Annalise looked so cute in her dress. Did you have to take the tree back to Home Depot or did they allow you throw it out and pick a new one? That happened to us last year, but we didn't know they had a return policy. Good to know. Hope you guys are feeling better. Its terrible being sick and worse when the baby gets sick. Hope to see you soon!
Naomi
Aww,I love Annalise in her Christmas dress. Thanks for getting us sick! Haha. Just kidding.
Annalise looks lovely..and she has grown.
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