Christmas Day 2010

Christmas morning did not go quite as I had planned -- but it worked. I originally had visions of all of us in our pajamas waking up early (Sam is typically up between 6:30 - 7 am every morning), sitting around opening gifts; just spending time together before we got dressed and prepared for the next big celebration at our house. Instead, Sam didn't wake up until 9:15 am. (She was up briefly at 5:15 am -- kind of in a daze -- and I immediately put her back in bed). This was definitely a record in our house -- she must have been tired from all of the "partying" the night before ...

So, by the time that Sam woke up, Steve and I were already showered and dressed, and I had my brother's birthday cake in the oven baking for later that day. In fact, I greeted Sam at the top of the stairs that morning in my apron, not knowing that Steve would be recording me coming down the stairs with her in my baking apron ... Oh well.

The concept of "Santa Claus" is still a little foreign to Samantha at her age. She knows who Santa is by sight, but she doesn't quite get the concept that he comes once a year, in the middle of the night, to bring presents to sleeping little girls and boys. Her "Santa gifts" were under the tree in our family room and she raced right up to them and began opening them immediately, still not knowing (or caring) that they were from the man in the red suit and white beard.

Opening her doll play set

Mommy and Sam with our aprons on

Getting her stocking down

Every year, our cats always get a couple of goodies from Santa in their stocking. This year was no exception, and Sam had the pleasure of opening those gifts for the cats.

Opening the goodies from the cats' stocking


The cats LOVED their new toys (and so did Sam)

By late morning, my parents, grandpa, uncle and most of my siblings had all arrived at our house to celebrate both Christmas and my brother's 21st birthday (he was born the day after Christmas). Samantha was dressed and ready to greet our guests by then.

Ready to greet her guests

One of the gifts on Christmas morning was a rocking horse that my dad had found in the attic this last Fall. It was made for my youngest sister by my grandpa when she was little. We kept it in our basement all Fall and then brought it out on Christmas Eve for Sam to see when she got up the next morning. She LOVES it! She climbs up on it and says, "rock," or "weee!"

Posing with Papa and her "new" rocking horse

"Helping" Uncle Jake blow out his birthday candles

One of her big gifts from Santa was a Graco doll playset, complete with a stoller, pack 'n play, bouncy chair and activity mat. She loves these toys and they are helping to prepare her for the baby that will be joining our family in 9 weeks (or less)!

Pushing her baby in the new stroller

New slippers from Grammy and Papa

A "My Little Pony" from Aunt Michele and Uncle John

It was a busy, but fun-filled family weekend for all of us. As this year draws to a close, we are reminded just how blessed we are to be able to live close enough to all of our family, and to be with them, not just at Christmas, but all year-round. Samantha is loved and cared for by so many people, and we enjoy watching as she interacts with all of them -- showing affection and love for everyone. She is truly our own special blessing and we look forward to celebrating the holidays next year with her and our new addition to the family!

Christmas Eve 2010

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house this year with Steve's family. Samantha was very excited about all of the presents under the tree (and for that reason, the presents were not put there until minutes before the party began). Even then, it was a full-time job to keep her occupied and away from all of the them. One of presents did get opened before all of the guests arrived (she knew that it was hers because it was wrapped in Sesame Street paper) and we quickly wrapped it back up again ...

A family photo

One of her favorite gifts that night was a set of Sesame Street books from Aunt Deb and Uncle Dennis. She has the most fun these days taking them out of the package and rearranging them. She is constantly bringing one of them to us to read to her.

Reading with Aunt Deb

Climbing out of one of the big boxes

One of the traditions that we have is to open a special pair of new pajamas at the end of the evening that can be worn to bed on Christmas Eve. Here is a picture of Samantha opening her new PJs:

Posing with her cousin, Am, in their new PJs

Samantha's First Sled

Last week, Steve took Samantha to the store to pick out her first sled. He gave her the choice of a purple sled or an orange sled and she chose the orange one. Since that day, they have had a chance to go sledding many times (the last snowfall has lasted for quite a while now); sometimes during the day and sometimes at night. Sam loves it! In fact, as soon as Steve comes home from work, she runs to the closet to get out her boots and begs him to take her outside.

I am slowing down a little more these days and most of my activities with Sam are limited to "inside projects." We have 10 weeks (or less) until we get to meet our new little one, and he/she is becoming more and more active (if that is even possible). While the baby flipped into a "head-down" position and stayed there for 2 days last week, he/she is now back to being in the transverse position. The transverse position means that I can definitely breathe easier, but the toll that it seems to be taking on my back is tremendous. I am also starting to swell, especially at night, but my doctor doesn't seem too concerned about that because my blood pressure has been very good throughout the entire pregnancy.

All of these little things are just that -- little. We are so blessed to be able to add on to our family, and that is something to be truly grateful for during this holiday season.

Winter Fun

We got a big snow storm this last weekend in our area and it was the perfect time to bundle Samantha up in her snowsuit and let her enjoy snow for the first time this winter. While she experienced some snow last year, she was still too little to really play in it and understand how much fun it could be.


Right away, she showed interest in Daddy's shovel, even though it was a little too big for her. Luckily, Steve had prepared for this a few weeks ago ... he bought her a little shovel all of her own so that she can "help" shovel the driveway.

Using her own shovel:

For the third year in a row, I took Samantha to see Santa (and just for the record, I am 100% sure that it has been the EXACT SAME Santa every year). This was the first year that she was was slightly scared of him and refused to sit on his lap. She had no problem going up to him, but wanted nothing to do with actually sitting on his lap. As a result, this was the only picture that I could get of her with Santa (notice that Mommy had to be in the photo).

The interesting part is that she loves walking all around our house, pointing out the various "Santa Claus" items that we have ... pictures, ornaments, magnets, etc. She refers to the Santa items as "Claus." I guess that it is just part of the two-year old phase where strangers (especially ones in big white beards) are intimidating.

Min's Wedding

My sister's wedding was on Saturday, and Sam had the special job of being the flower girl in the wedding. She took her job very seriously (she didn't even need me to walk down the aisle with her), and was so proud to be wearing her "party dress."




She loves to smell flowers and didn't miss the opportunity to smell Papa's boutonniere:



All of my siblings were able to attend the wedding, so we took advantage of the photo opportunity:

(From L-R: Jacob, me, Min, Zach and Michele)


Posing with the happy bride

As part of the meal, everyone received edible flowers on their dinner plates. As mentioned before, Sam loves flowers and she paraded around with them ... so adorable!