Christmas Bliss

I wish I had taken a picture of my living room 20 minutes ago. It was a complete mess made by my beloved daughter in the hour and a half it took me to wrap all my gifts. She had so much fun playing with the papers and bows and wrappers and bags. She even found a tissue box in her reach and went to town pulling out tons of tissues. Everything was everywhere and she was in complete baby tornado bliss. Ah, to be a kid again.

So one of her presents happens to be a sparkly box of tissues... and it will probably be her favorite gift too. I tried not to go overboard since she is only 10 1/2 months old and really won't remember her gift opening (or lack there of) but I guess when you have only one child and you want to relive your childhood through them, it is hard not to get carried away. I made myself divide her gifts in half so she will have some for her birthday in a month, and I won't have to buy her anything else.
Atleast that is the plan...

I have been super busy sewing and baking and sewing and baking this week. Everyone tells me to slow down and take a break... but I just tell them that I will come Saturday morning when I am in the Jeep on the way to Indiana. I am just pushing myself until then, and then I can relax to the fullest extent for the entire week we are there. I can't wait!

On a very exciting note (at least for me) Anastasia took her first steps a little over a week ago and is now walking everywhere. I love it! I dreaded her becoming mobile for so long as my parents house is the least childproof house in the world probably but a mobile baby is not so bad. She is so much happier now that she can get around! I always cuddle her and wish she wouldn't get any bigger, but at every age I say that this stage is better than the last and I hope this will continue until she is 14 or 15. Then we will have to lock her in a dungeon. :)

Until next time, Merry Christmas. And all of you in or near Chicago, you must go to the Christkind Market in Daley Plaza! I hope to go the 23 or 24!! We went 2 years ago and it was WONDERFUL!

Its Christmas in Washington

My mom and Anastasia at the Botanical Gardens.

One of the model trains

I spy the president

The lit Christmas tree

So I defiantly have the cold from Hell. One day I feel great, and then I wake up the next feeling like crap, barely able to speak. That was today. Maybe part of my prolonged sickness is from sitting out in the freezing cold at the lighting of the National Christmas tree. It was fun but freezing.

My mom, Caitlin, A and I went to DC for the day before the main event-- the so called, "pageant of Peace" although the cold that eats you alive is not very peaceful. And perhaps singing Christmas Carols in the cold (by our own free will) is lovely and all, but it seems somewhat hypocritical having a Peace Pageant celebrating Christmas while others are in Iraq fighting... and may be on Christmas day. I am not completely for or against the war... it just makes me sad that people are fighting abroad and people are buying into the consumer madness here during this Christmas season. It seems the meaning of the season gets so lost between empty bank accounts and people almost hitting your car for the closest parking spot at the mall (this happened to me a couple weeks ago!!!) We as a society have forgotten the Reason for the season... the baby in the manger.

On a completely other note... if you want to have a wonderful (and practically free) Christmas DC experience I highly recommend checking out the botanical gardens. They are completely decked out with poinsettias and model trains and georgeous Christmas trees. They also have a really neat hunt for kids to learn about different Christmas plant-derived items (eg. peppermint and vanilla). We had a total blast there! Then for a treat take the metro or a car to Union Station and check out their awesome model train and go to Vicaros for delicious cannolis. That is what we did (except we did it in the opposite order) and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with limited funds (except for the $4 cannoli and parking). So that was our big day and now I am paying for it. I don't know about anyone else but I LOVE the city at Christmastide... I am getting super pumped for Chicago in two weeks!!!

How I Feel About Santa...

I am so in love with her pout! AH! So we had a great holiday-style weekend. I have been fighting a cold... and felt better over the weekend but lost my voice. But that didn't stop me from having a jolly old time. Saturday we went to see Santa for the first time... and Anastasia went to him but then when I backed away to take this picture she had second thoughts (hence the pout)! She thought Rudolph was pretty cool though. We took a stroll through old town Fredericksburg (possibly my favorite old town of all) where we picked up some espresso and a hat from a great little consignment shop. We also found this awesome kitchen store with this candy castle in the window:

I totally recommend going downtown and seeing it up close... its stupendous! It is inspiring me to make a gingerbread house of awesomeness (or lack there of). We helped a friend decorate a tree and headed over to the Fredericksburg parade that lasted more than 2 hours! Anastasia loved all the marching bands and Christmas light covered floats and was given a bunch of mardi gras beads and candy (I guess cuteness counts for something)... so even though it was cold I had a cup of hot tea and a bundley baby to keep me warm. It was great!

Finally we finished off the day with a trip to Nick's Aikido party (he was at a siminar all day) which Anastasia could hardly stay awake for but charmed everyone in that special way that babies do. Sunday was a little more chill for us but involved a trip to DC for a church artifact sale (for Nick's job) and an estate sale and a quick drop by Guabe's house. It was quite a packed weekend which probably accounts for why I woke up feeling like crap this morning and took my dad up on an offer to take the baby errand-running with him so I could sleep it off. I want my voice back!!!