The Big Holiday Update

I'm... dreaming... of a White... Christmas....

Not so much here, Bing. As Nicole mentioned in the previous post, we had a good amount of snow this past holiday. While I got to enjoy an additional two days of vacation in the form of "snow days", there was a disproportionate amount of snow shoveling that needed to be done. But I complain too much. Wasn't all bad. Haley and the dog were clearly pleased with the deep powdery playground that they awoke to.

Christmas was a big deal this year for Haley. While she sorta understood what was going on last year, this year she fully embraced the idea of a fat guy in a velvet red suit breaking into our house, eating our cookies, and leaving her a dollhouse in exchange. Learning our lessons from previous years, we tried to spread "Christmas Morning" over several days, allowing her to open a few gifts each day leading up to the 25th. On the actual Christmas morning, Bunny, Grumpa, and Nicole's Uncle John joined us to open gifts.

New Years was a mixed bag. We got a chance to have dinner and play games with Bunny and Grumpa and our close friends Joe and Heather. The evening was topped off with a champagne toast at midnight. Unfortunately, a little over an hour after our guests left, Haley began to throw up. And she continued to do so until 4am. We never figured out the cause, but she was feeling 100% better by the following evening, so we can't complain.

Zoe was a little too young to enjoy any of this, but she is growing and developing so fast. It might not seem like a big deal to the non-parents out there, but Zoe hit a major milestone during the holidays. She has started to gain control of her hands and limbs. Instead of flailing her arms wildly, she has started to reach for things and put them in her mouth. She is also very talkative and she often tells me all about her day. Too bad I don't speak "baby".