Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Animal House (Part II)

Harper has been ALL OVER Maisy this week.



Maisy is such a good dog.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Holiday Madness

So this is supposed to be my Christmas update. Spoiler alert: if you’re looking for mistletoe and reindeer prepare to be disappointed.

Christmas came and went so quickly this year that I didn’t get any photos of our sparsely decorated and desiccated tree (which we later discovered had been spray painted green in an attempt to create a façade of freshness), the BEAUTIFUL, handmade Christmas tree skirt my mother handed down to me this year (thank you, mom!), our stockings hung by the chimney with care (really, they were adorable), gift opening (I know, I blew it), or even the traditional pompom and felt crafted Christmas vulture perched aloft the upper branches of our mighty tannenbaum (a Bauer family tradition). I’ll do better next year, or such are my intentions.
All hail the Christmas Vulture! (Note: this is not an actual photo of our tree).

It was, however, a lovely weekend. Brad took three entire days off (in a row!) so we could enjoy the holiday as a family. As always, we had enchiladas for Christmas Eve dinner, and then Brad and Harper each opened one gift (I like to wait until Christmas morning).
Christmas morning featured snacking out of our stocking loot (funny how well fresh oranges, nuts, chocolate bars and gingerbread go together), while we opened our Harper’s gifts. When I say Harper’s gifts I am not exaggerating. The Bauer side of the family has a tradition of opening one gift at a time, everyone taking a turn, youngest to oldest, so we can all see what everyone received. But the gift ratio was so drastically in Harper’s favor we were opening nearly 9:1:1. (Let me take a moment here to thank everyone for the wonderful gifts! Harper is thrilled with all her new toys and books - which came just in time because she was getting tired of the old stuff). We were going to have an abbreviated Thanksgiving-style dinner for Christmas evening but ended up barbequing on Brad’s new grill (thank you, Santa!).   
It was wonderful to spend the day with just our little family, although our thoughts were with our friends and extended family. I wish we all lived closer so we could see you more often!
So as not to disappoint too much, here is a photo of the aftermath of Harper’s first encounter with a chocolate chip cookie:

And here is a video of her enjoying her new Christmas books:

Happy belated holidays!