Christmas 2010

Hello! I've missed you! We got back from Plattsburgh last night and the other two members of the household are still sick, so I've been spending the morning browsing all of the blogs and websites I've missed over the last week as I hand out various doses of Advil Cold & Sinus, Baby Tylenol, tissues, milk, etc.

We had an amazing Christmas around here. It wasn't Charlotte's first, but it was her first where she was old enough to get the gist of what was going on and it was awesome. We had assumed that she would be preoccupied with the wrapping paper side of things, but it turns out that 16 months is not too young to understand that once you get through the paper you can get some good stuff in there. In fact, by the time she was opening presents at her grandparent's house, she had even figured out how to get her tiny little finger wedged into the gift boxes to pry them open. Well done, little one.

Despite the fact that we kept it simple around here with only 4 presents from Santa, between her friends and family members, she took in quite a haul. Mostly art supplies, a few toddler toys, and clothes. Not to mention THE CAR. Holy cow does she love that thing.

After we had an entire day of Christmas festivities following our private celebration that morning, we headed up north to see my family. There were so many great conversations with family members and friends that I haven't seen in years, it was such a blessing. In the last year, and even just in the last month, we've lost some dear family members and friends, many unexpectedly, so I felt extra grateful this year that no one in my immediate family was absent.

We're going to extend Christmas here on the blog with a series of posts next week on the low key and creative ways we celebrated the season to give you ideas for next year. But until then there is a LOT of cleaning and de-cluttering to do...