"and to all a good night"

Well, I think Santa did good this year. I have one happy baby girl.

Just like Thanksgiving, things were a little different this year, but I liked it. Instead of my family gathering on Christmas Day for our gift exchange, everyone came over Christmas Eve. We enjoyed a delicious ham courtesy of Ameristar Casino, texas potatoes, green beans, mostaccioli, and pie.  Followed with lots of presents and games!

Charlie is very lucky to have such crafty Grandparents. Pop-pop made Charlie several push/pull toys.

And of course, Gam-Gam is always sure to keep us warm every winter with lots of hand knitted scarves and hats. My favorite of all has to be the long hat/scarf off of the Christmas Story. They also made us a very cool Snow Man Kit. It includes a top hat, carrot nose, red scarf, coal eyes, mouth, and buttons. I can't wait for it to snow!

Charlie even got a cool convertible sports car with a personalized licensed plate. The cool thing about it...it comes with a remote for Mommy and Daddy to steer her around until she can drive herself. So its like a toy for all three of us! Right now, Charlie isn't too found of the car moving around. She really just prefers to sit in it and listen to the radio (thats right, you can listen to any station you want or plug in your ipod!!)

And I cannot forget my crafty sister! She made me the BEST present in the world. It is a photo frame made out of her old garage window. And of course it is filled with pictures of the most beautiful little girl :)

After a few horse race games (also made by Pop-Pop) we made the trip to Festus for the Greer Family Christmas gathering. Every year, we all exchange homemade ornaments. This year the Dicken's Family all made painted glass ornaments (see previous post about our ornament catastrophe). In exchange we got a paper mache light house and rally squirrel (made by the Kapplers) to go with our previous ornaments and a cool spaceship looking ornament (made by Grandpa Greer).

On the way home for Aunt Barb's we swung by Candy Cane Lane for a quick peek at some Christmas lights. All I know is good thing we helped Santa essemble Charlie's toys ahead of time, because by the time we got home we were pooped!!

Charlotte must have been pooped too. Because Chuck and I woke up an hour before her Christmas morning. I think we were more excited about her opening her gifts!

After our presents were opened and breakfast was devoured, we headed to Wentzville. Chuck's Grandfather hasnt been in the best of health. Just this past week he was in the hospital and then moved to a nursing home. So we busted him out and went for a joy ride! He was so happy to get out of his room and I dont blame him. Those rooms are quite depressing. On our drive he kept saying, "this is heaven" over and over. It made me very happy to see him smile. We took him home, made some lunch and opened even more presents. Charlotte was particularly fond of Grandpa Frank this day. She sat at the table making faces at him and laughing. She even had us laughing too trying to imitate Frank's wink, which was a double eye blink for her. I wish I would have snapped some photos. Maybe next time.

Overall, this was a GREAT Christmas. I am so grateful for all of our family and friends. Charlie got soooo many toys this Christmas that we will need a bigger house to keep them all! Seriously. As I am trying to type this blog I am surrounded by toys and books. And her toys keep getting bigger and bigger in size. sheesh.

Christmas...or something like that?

I was a little stumped on a blog title this week. So I asked Chuck. His response was "call it Christmas...or something like that". So there it is. My husband is just so creative.

Speaking of my dorky husband. Last week Charlie was watching her morning show The Cat in the Hat. I started to sing the beginning hook of the show..."Here we go, go, go, go. On an adventure. The thing-a-ma-giggy goes up and awaaaay". And Chuck, very boldly, corrects me. "Its a thing-a-ma-giger. Get it right!" Geez. I guess I need to start studying my cartoon lyrics so I can be as cool as my husband. ha.

Anyway. Not much to report this week. Chuck and I finally got a night off from parenting to play some wine pong with our friends...but I think I will leave that craziness out of this Charlie related blog :)

Last week we had plans to see Christmas Lights with the fam. One night out of the season, Fort Zumwalt Park opens up the light display to pedestrians. And we were sooooo bummed that this year was cancelled due to rain!! Grr. So instead, we walked the Zoo Lights Sunday evening. It was OK. I expected something spectacular, but was pretty unimpressed with the boring lights strung across the trees. And it was busy. At least we got to see some stinky penguins and this time we were dressed to their freezing climate.

Less than a week til Christmas, whooo hooo!! I cannot wait to see Charlie's reaction to all of her cool toys. Hopefully this year, she will be more interested in the toys rather than the wrapping paper and boxes. Here is Charlie last year on Christmas:

Boy has she changed alot since then! Since this week's blog is lacking some excitement, I'll give you a video!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Cookies, The Nutcracker, and Good Ol' Saint Nicholas

We had quite the festive weekend...

Saturday, Grandma and Aunt Jes came over for cookie baking. We started at 10:30am and did not finish up until around 8:00 pm!! We did take an intermission from baking to see The Nutcracker on Ice at the Webster Groves Rec Center, followed by dinner at Chili's. By the end of the day my back hurt, my feet ached, and I was dog tired. Who knew baking cookies was so exhausting....

Our official taste tester:

Finished product: 

 -oatmeal scotchies

-chocolate drops

-chocolate chip

-candy cane twist

-oatmeal waffle cookies

-sugar cookies

-peanut butter reindeer cookies

-snickerdoodles

-chocolate covered pretzels

-and some others I cannot remember....

and a cookie just for Grandpa, made by Charlie: 

Nutcracker on Ice:

And then Sunday we went to the Galleria to say HI to Santa. I was truly SURPRISED by Charlie's reaction. I was expecting to have a picture something like this:

Nope. Charlie LOVED Santa. Which is a total shocker because she is all about the stranger danger, especially with big hairy men. But as soon as Chuck put her down, she walked right up to him and started jib jabbering away. We put her up on his lap expecting a total melt down and she started playing with his stuffed animals. We even got a smile out of her!

HOLY GROWTH SPURT!

When I was pregnant I signed up for weekly baby update emails and I still get them. LOVE THEM. Normally they are right on track. As I am reading, "around this time your baby should start pulling up on couches, chairs, etc." or "your baby may begin drooling like the Niagara Falls" or "picking her nose", you get the picture. I look over and Charlotte will be doing that exact same thing as I am reading it! It's crazy how dead on they are. Well this weeks update mentioned that around 18 months toddlers growth spurts start to slow down. Not my child. She is still growing like a freaking weed on crack! Seriously. Look at this picture. I swear these jammies were on the ground last week. Now look at them:

And then I look back at photos 6 months ago. I cannot believe how much she has changed! For instance her hair:
12 months-


18 months!:

Wow, right? My baby girl is growing up. (tear). Other than Charlie growing like a weed, nothing new and exciting has happened lately. Last weekend Charlie and I did take a trip to the Science Center. Just us girls. Normally I dont like going out in public with her. She tends to throw loud and embarrassing tantrums. But this trip was acutally quite enjoyable. There was really nothing for her to destroy, which was great. I just let her run wild like a crazy child! She did walk into several window displays. They really do keep the glass clean at the SC. I watched an older child run full steam into a glass display. Hit so hard it almost knocked him unconscious. At first I was concerned, but then laughed my ass off. It would have been a big winner on AFV if it was caught on tape. lol.  

I wonder what was going through her head here:

She stood in this same spot for about 30 minutes looking up at that big ol' dino. And occassionally would tense up and give an evil laugh- you know what I am talking about Aunt Jes. Here is one last clip. Explanation: She has been trying really hard to JUMP lately. She is so darn cute :)