Huntington Harbor cruise

On Monday night, we braved the cold to take in some pretty Christmas lights. Not only did we get to see some beautiful light displays, but we had a great view – from a boat! We rode a school bus down to the harbor (which alone would have thrilled Emilia) and we boarded a boat to cruise around to see gorgeous harbor homes all decked out for Christmas. It was chilly, but luckily Emilia stole Poppy’s hat to keep warm:

Baby, it’s cold outside

So it was cold on our trip – and not just cold for California. After looking at the weather a few days before we went and seeing highs in the high 60s, I packed entirely wrong. I’m not sure it made it into the 60s once! We looked for a few indoor things to do to stay warm. One day we went to South Coast Plaza, which is a big mall by Grammy and Poppy’s house. Emilia rode the carousel with Grammy, but was really wary of Santa, who was sitting just a few yards away. Here she is with Grammy and Poppy in front of the train: And daddy couldn’t resist letting her play in the fountain:

California Christmas

We flew to California via Dallas on the 21st. For the most part, Emilia did OK on both of our flights out. All three of us even took a nap at one point, which was nice. Grammy and Big Poppy met us at the airport and we drove back to their house where Emilia was ecstatic to see her best buddy, their dog, Brandy. Emilia helped Grammy decorate the tree and Poppy helped decorate Emilia:
Emilia started saying “Poppy,” and, even though she can’t say “Grammy,” she was saying “Mama,” which is what she calls my mom, too.

Christmas eve eve eve eve eve (or something like that)

Since we were traveling for Christmas, Santa made a special early trip to our house. We had a few gifts for Emilia – mostly things to occupy her on the long flight to California. She’s still clueless about the whole thing, but she can definitely repeat “Santa” and destroy a wrapped present.

The "ya ya" sisters

Emilia and her BFF Clara not only have matching PJs, but they also call pronounce each other’s names “ya ya.” Here they are a few weeks ago at our small group. Aren’t they adorable!

Tasty playdate

This morning, Emilia and I went to a fun playdate and cookie exchange with some of her daycare buddies and their mommies. Abby had lots of fun toys to share and the cookies were very yummy! We had been talking about getting these kids together for a while and it was really fun to see them interact and play outside of the work week. Here's Emilia with her pals, Jamison, Abby and Kaitlyn.

Emilia’s latest tricks

Lately, Emilia:

• has started blowing kisses (with a significant amount of prompting)
• repeats EVERYTHING… time to watch what you say!
• can identify her head, tummy, hair, arms, eyes, nose, mouth and ears
• offers a, usually identifiable, sound for nearly animal you can imagine
• tries to help dress and undress herself, with hats, bows, shoes and socks as her top priority – shirts and pants are optional
• requests her baseball hat and wooden bat (thanks, daddy and Uncle Kyle – great idea) before I can even get her out of the crib in the morning
• folds her hands to pray and announces “Amen!” even before we ask – this is usually meant to move the meal along and she even reminds us when we forget
• slides downstairs on her tummy and toes but usually turns around at least once a flight of stairs giving me a heart attack
• has a special affection for all of the snowmen dolls she sees – mostly trying to steal their hats and scarves
• draws you into a mean game of peek-a-boo
• dances on command
• single-handedly lifts her school bus tent to crawl under it… who needs the door?
• still loves her books… wait until she sees the new ones Santa has in store for her!
• gives hugs (OK, sometimes they’re more like tackles) to her friends (and on Saturday, a seven-year old complete stranger when we were out shopping – nice)

Here she is giving a squeeze to a toy snowman:

Hats are so last season

OK, so maybe she is not forgoing hats altogether, as evidenced by the last post, but Emilia has definitely found a new accessory obsession: belts – specifically, daddy’s belts. She can’t get enough of them! Other items catching her eye lately include daddy's shoes and mommy's bracelet.

The most wonderful time of the year

This weekend was jam-packed with holiday cheer.

Saturday morning, we bundled up and drove to Old Town Manassas for its annual Christmas parade. This was our first viewing of the parade, and even though it was quite possibly the longest parade EVER and the coldest day of the year, it was really fun! Emilia’s favorite parade participants were of the four-legged variety – specifically the doggies and horsies, including the Budweiser Clydesdales. There were lots of marching bands and holiday tunes. Between Emilia dancing along and changing hats (first her doggie hat, then daddy’s hat, then an elf hat they were giving to the crowd), we had our own little sideshow going to entertain the people around us. Here are Emilia’s various parade-viewing ensembles:
The highlight of every Christmas parade is of course the finale when Santa appears. But, because we could no longer feel our faces and it was pushing lunchtime for Emilia, we resigned ourselves to passing on Old St. Nick. We made our way back to our car, which was parked at the start of the parade. Who did we find waiting there for his turn in the parade but the Big Red Man himself (and I’m not talking about Eric )!?! He was so friendly and patient – a true jolly St. Nick. However, Emilia wasn’t so sure at first. Here’s her immediate reaction:
After Santa turned on the charm, Emilia finally warmed up to him:
All in all, she had a fantastic time at her first Christmas parade. So much so that this was the reaction when we finally had to leave the horsies behind - real tears!:
We ended our weekend by meeting up with our friends for dinner and going back to Manassas for the Bull Run Festival of Lights. You drive in your car through the park and view elaborate light displays. I think Emilia was a little overwhelmed, but every once in a while she would pipe up and announce something she recognized: “tree!” “neigh!” (for horsies). At the end of the tour, we braved the 20-degree, windy weather to check out the festival's carnival. Emilia and Nay Nay (Nathan) got to go on two rides before we were all going to freeze to death. Here they are riding a school bus ride. How cute are they?!?
We headed back to the Vaughans’ house just in time to meet up with Santa again, this time on a South Riding fire engine. Emilia is still not sold on this Santa guy (see the pout below), so we’ll have to keep trying.
In the midst of all of that, we finished our Christmas cards, put up the outside lights, made some progress on Christmas shopping, and watched a holiday favorite, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I think it’s safe to say that the holiday season is in full swing in our house!

The big one

[Caution: Erin is away on a short business trip so this is Eric writing his first blog post.]

What does Emilia want to do when Mommy is not around?

She finds her favorite John Deere hat and settles down to read a book about fishing.

Obviously that activity is way too exciting for her so she doses off to sleep and dreams about...?

Refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to go, she then walks off into the sunset in search of "The Big One."