The Christmas Spirit

As I've mentioned recently, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  For the last 10 or 12 years, part of our Thanksgiving tradition, was getting up early on Black Friday and going to Jones Tree Farm to cut down our Christmas Tree. It's something my parents did as kids with their families and they've continued to do with us. We typically went in December when our schedules allowed but we started the Black Friday tradition when I was in college because it was the only time I could join the fam.  So after a great day with family, we'd load up on the coffee, gloves and scarves and hit the road with christmas music to the tree farm. 

This year was the first year in a long time that we couldn't go on Friday or this weekend to get our tree. Right now, it's looking like we'll go next Saturday. I was totally bummed not to jump right from Thanksgiving into the Christmas spirit with that tradition. It didn't feel right to embrace Christmas without getting our tree first. However, I went out yesterday looking for a few new Christmas items for our house, hoping that might help get me in the spirit. Sure enough, I bought just a couple things that did the trick. I rearranged our mantle and added lots of red and green touches and voila! just like that, I am totally in the spirit. I will say, it's been nice to drive around the neighborhood and see the amount of people who have done the same thing. The Christmas lights are up in full effect, wreaths are hung and I have even seen some trees up inside homes! Since it's the most, wonderful time of the year, we might as well dive right in and enjoy the spirit as long as we can :)

Hope you had a great weekend!

Madelyn and Anthony's playdate!

As I was downloading all of our recent photos, I decided I had to share the ones from a recent get together with our dear friends. You'll notice there aren't any of the 4 of us adults, we were busy catching up, enjoying beverages and watching these two cuties (and future boyfriend and girlfriend!) play! Everytime we get together we have so much fun and now with our babies able to play, it's even more fun :)

Thankful...

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love Thanksgiving because it's the kickoff of the holiday season and it's always a fun day with family! It's also a time of reflection and gratitude, not to mention lots of amazing food :) That said, what's not to love!

Last year, we were in a little bit of a fog with a newborn in the house.  While I like to think that we handled the first few months as new parents pretty well, looking back, the holidays last year, are a blur. This year, I am really excited to celebrate what a great year its been and my many blessings.

I am thankful for:

* my family for being my favorite people in the world

* my friends for getting me and always being there

* the health of my friends and family

* reasons to get together with friends and family!

* vineyard vines and the life it gave me

* cozy fall Sundays by the fire

* good red wine

* date nights... even the quiet nights at home!

* 40 cents of gas savings from Stop and Shop points

* homemade mac n' cheese

* my morning coffee from Dunkin donuts (medium w/ cream and one sweet n' low)

* family walks

*  SVU on my DVR

* gluten free stuffing

Last and not least, a husband who is the most perfect person on this planet for me.  This guy, makes me laugh out loud, is my best friend, is the BEST Daddy, helps with all the chores around the house without ever saying boo, and loves me unconditionally! And of course, our little Miss M. The light of our lives, who is gentle, independent, shy, easy-going, and happy, she is the best thing that ever happened to us.

The list goes on and on, but I wont bore you :) Have a wonderful thanksgiving, however you celebrate it and gobble gobble! Cheers!

One Amazing Year!!

  

We've finally regrouped from Sandy and Athena and it's settled in - our baby girl is ONE! Ahh. What I expected for the day was to spend time that day reminiscing and sharing stories about her birth.  What I didn't expect was to be flooded by emotions. I shed lots of happy (and maybe a few sad) tears for what a wonderful blessing our little girl is and what a fast year it has been. It just flew!

We celebrated on her actual birthday with a yummy birthday dinner and cake, with my family.  We had a planned a pumpkin and fall themed party in her honor for 11/3 at her Grammie and Grampies, but Sandy changed our plans. Instead, we invited our families and a few close friends, over for a little b-day cheer at our house and it was great. Madelyn got to hang out with her friends, have more cake and she was so excited for some new toys :) 

So now that the celebrating is over, we're looking ahead to the start of her 2nd year and hoping there isn't too much that is "terrible" about it!  Being first time parents, we can definitely sense that the gears have changed and our goals for this year will be different than the first. I pray we can keep our momentum from a great 1st year to tackle all the challenges this year will present.

Madelyn marked her 1st year with 7 teeth (5 on top, 2 on the bottom), a suddenly inconsistent nap schedule, a steady, yet picky appetite, about 8 or 9 words and last but not least, 3 steps! We are very lucky that Madelyn has handled the whole teething process, like a champ! Aside from a few little moans a couple of times at night while she tried to get comfy, we hardly knew they were popping out. She's still sort of fussy about trying new foods and she tires of some veggies quickly. One night she ate broccoli like I would enjoy a brownie sundae, and a few nights later, looked at me like "no way in hell, I'm eating that!" The few things we can always rely on to fill her up - grilled cheese, chicken nuggets and pastina with sauce and parm. I was happy to watch her thoroughly enjoy her cupcake/cake at her birthday :) that's my girl!!

Brian and I are loving that she is "communicating" with us more now and repeating all the things we say to her. One of my favorites is when she blows you a kiss, especially if it's not prompted!  When we say are you ready to go night-night? She'll say right back - nigh - nigh and cozy up her to monkey. Yesterday, I said to do you want something to eat? She immediately responded, "num, num" ha! Her other words - Mama, Dada, hi, ba-ba (bottle), yes, and da-yie (doggie).  We know Miss M could probably walk on her own, but she is so cautious, it'll be a little while before she's got it down. She'll stand on her own and then quickly squat, so she's back, safely on the ground.  After bribing her for about an hour last week, she finally took a few steps on her own! I think we scared her because we all cheered so loud! Miss long and lean is growing well, in height more than weight.  Since her last appointment, Madelyn grew 1 3/4 inches and 12 oz, to 30 1/4 inches and 21 lbs.

Here are some pictures from little Miss M's birthday celebrations. Hope you and your families are well! 

our week (so far) in pictures

With Sandy, Halloween and Madelyn's first birthday all happening at once, my mind is all over the place this week.  My parents are without power still, so they're heading up to our house tonight for a celebration for Miss M, which should be really fun! Her party on Saturday, may or may not happen because my parents aren't expecting power back until next week sometime (brrrrr).

The silver lining in the chaos is that we, especially me, have spent the last few days soaking up every little second with our munchkin. Lots of books, lots of cuddles, lots of kisses and tons of smiles, I have had SO much fun just hanging with my sweet girl.

Here are some pictures of M, dressed for Halloween with nowhere to go, and what Sandy did to our neighboorhood.  Hope you all are doing well!

Giving kisses to her new doll