Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree….

| December 11, 2009

Today we went shopping for Samantha’s first Christmas tree!  We went to the same place we have been going ever since we moved into our house, the Don Guanella school.  They always have a nice selection of trees, at decent prices, and we like the idea of giving our Christmas tree money to a cause, instead of to a corporate entity like The Home Depot.  Anyway, every year that we go we seem to have two weather options — (1) freezing cold and windy or (2) damp from having rained for a week straight.  Today we got freezing cold and windy.  But despite the nippy weather, we had fun picking out the tree.  Sam wasn’t much help though as tree shopping was inching over into her afternoon naptime, but she was a good sport.  We bundled her up, including a hat (which she hates) and she was a good little girl.  Here are some pictures of our tree shopping.  With any luck we are decorating the tree this weekend, so pictures will be coming soon!

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Back to the future….

| December 7, 2009

A while ago I made a post about some dresses that were mine when I was a baby that my mom had saved and then given to me when she found out I was having a girl.  I couldn’t wait to put Samantha in them.  Well, this weekend we had a fashion show and Sam modeled some of her mommy’s old dresses.  I can’t believe how cute she looks or how good these dresses look after 40 years!  Mark commented that he didn’t know why my mom had so many dressy dresses for me, when Sam only has a few.  I told him that they weren’t really “dressy”, it was just how babies dressed in the 60’s!  Comfort was obviously not a huge factor.

I think if these photos were in black and white, Sam could be a 60’s baby — you’d never know the difference.  All she needs is those horrible hard white shoes we all used to wear….

Anyway, here she is!

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Zephyr chose to join Sam in a few photos.  Here is the cutest one.  The kitties are so good to her.

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This one is Mark’s favorite.

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And last but not least, I am re-posting the photo of me wearing one of my old dresses, interestingly enough, the blue one Mark likes so much.  So crazy….

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Sam’s first snow

| December 5, 2009

Today was a good day.  Mark got home from an almost week long work-related trip to Germany last night, so today was nice, all three of us being home together again.  He really didn’t want to go away and leave Sam, but he really didn’t have much choice.  Gotta keep the food on the table and a roof over our heads!  We had planned on spending a nice quiet day at home today, just relaxing and letting Mark catch up wtih Samantha.  We succeeded pretty well.  I brought her into bed with us this morning when she woke up and we spent some time just hanging out until we were all awake enough to start the day, then we just hung out quietly, talking to her, hugging her and playing Christmas carols.  Sam and I danced around to Diana Krall’s Christmas album and she seemed to like it.  We hadn’t planned on going out much since it was a somewhat miserable, rainy day.  We were just going to go out and grab some dinner.  But then it started to snow! 

Sam’s first snow…..I took her out on the porch and held her so she could see it.  She kind of looked around like she wasn’t sure what to make of it.  I seriously doubt she really understood anything, but I wanted her to see it all the same.   Every single thing that she experiences is exciting for me.  Probably more exciting for me than for her, but that’s ok..  It always seemed kind of cheesy to me when I heard people talk about experiencing things through the eyes of a child, but it really is exciting seeing how she sees things for the first time.  The silliest things are interesting to her.  My mom has this snowman decoration that lights up and changes color.  Cute, but not exactly earth-shattering in excitement.  But Sam LOVES it.  LOVES it.  She smiles over and over again, and talks to the snowman non-stop. It is so freaking cute, I can’t even stand it.  What she is trying to say to it I have no idea.  My mom bought me one for our house just because Sam gets such a kick out of it.  I am going to try to get some pictures of her looking at him and will post them if I get any. 

 More pics are coming soon, I promise.  It’s just been a hectic week with Mark being away.  But I survived pretty well if I do say so myself.  I spent a lot of time at my mom’s house, which helped a lot.  At least I had food!  Being alone for a week really made me appreciate how hard it must be for a single mom.  I felt like Sam didn’t get enough attention, my cats didn’t get enough attention, I didn’t get enough time to myself…and I wasn’t even working!  There just isn’t enough time in a day to give everyone what they want.  Anyway, today was good.  Really good.  It was one of those days where everything just felt right and everything fell into place.  Life is good.

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