'Twas the 18th day after Christmas

and Mommy finally updated this blog. For all of you family and friends who helped celebrate R's first Christmas and/or birthday, thank you. You made these 2 special days beautiful for our little family.

The Princess thoroughly enjoyed Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Here are some pictures of my favorite moments.

Notice the absence of R's Winnie-the Pooh stocking. That's because she refused to let it hang from the mantle and insisted on carrying it around the house like a stuffed animal throughout the holiday season. A big thank you to Lanie (whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting but who I like to think of as R's fairy godmother) for the stocking. It created a very sweet memory. I put a small Winnie-the-Pooh inside her WtP stocking on Christmas morning, so she wouldn't miss him too much.


Only a blue-eyed, blond-haired, beautiful toddler like our princess could charm a teenage boy into reading her a baby book about puppies.

Where is this Christmas fudge I keep hearing about?

Three generations of beautiful females.

She loves the giant rocking Panda that Nana got for her. She walks up to him and either loves on him or looks him in the eyes and talks to him. It's adorable.
Our first "baby." He looks thrilled, doesn't he?
AnBa brought R her very first piano! She's been making music ever since. What is really cute is watching her bend over, hit keys and dance by moving her diaper bottom around. All worn out from opening all 217 presents. Thankfully, Pop-Pop had a nice lap to rest in.

Poor R had a cold and was trying to cut her two top front teeth during the holidays, but she was still an absolute angel. She just giggled around the finger she had in her mouth to chew on and wiped her nose on Mommy's shirt and kept on playing. (These were times when she had just flung down her teething ring or Mommy was carrying her to get a tissue for her nose.)

Thank you, my darling daughter, for giving me the best Christmas gift of all.