Christmas in February!

Well, not exactly. It’s really just our Christmas 2006 recap... finally! I’m amazed at how busy the first few weeks of 2007 have been. Somehow it’s now February and we haven’t posted about our holiday festivities. Evidently, it's true what they say - time flies when you’re having fun.

We were fortunate enough to have not one, but TWO terrific Christmas celebrations last year and they deserve mention on the blog. So without further ado, here are our Christmas highlights...

Christmas #1 – celebrating with the Brinsons
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· Our own personal FAO Schwartz store under the tree!

· Riding the Santa train and meeting the big man himself

· Dreaming of being a NASCAR superstar

· Riding the special carousel and train at Hurley Park

· Seeing Martha Stewart in person... if you count only seeing her back

· Remodeling our kitchen... oops, it was lucky Amelia who got a new one!

Christmas #2 – celebrating with the Kemps

· The travel nightmare getting to CA... delayed six hours out of RDU; rerouted in-flight to Indianapolis - supposed to land in Chicago; DROVE to our connection in Chicago - four hours (1am - 5am) in a rental car with our new friend Greg, driving through a torrential downpour; lost cell phone at Avis drop-off - found it later; Amelia meltdown going through Chicago security; delayed out of Chicago; finally got on plane and sat for an hour at gate watching a movie (never a good sign!); plane broke down, moved to a different plane; finally arrived in CA almost 15 hours late!

· Surprise visit from the Lost Reindeer and Sweetie the Elf, his trusty sidekick

· 1st annual white elephant gift exchange - big fight over who got to keep "Elmo Goes Potty"

· Meeting Matt's great girlfriend Kendra

· Jon's bowling birthday celebration, including a dance-off

· Amelia playing with Maddie

· LEGOLAND!

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Click the thumbnails below for more pictures of our holiday adventures...

2006 Brinson Christmas

2006 Kemp Christmas

Best Friends Forever!

Guess who's a happy girl?! Amelia loves Gus. She loves to hug him, pet him, and especially, play with him. He's game to most of it... except the play part. At least, the kind of play she wants to do.

Every once in a while he'll comply with her friendly request. Like last night. She got in his "bed" and called for him to "come." It sounded so sweet. Unfortunately, Gus really only listens to Lee.

A little coercing ("dragging") by me, made Amelia a very happy girl. Gus, ever the sweet pup, patiently snuggled up next to her and the giggles began.

You can tell by his face that he's not particularly pleased to play the part of "horse." None-the-less, he's incredibly sweet and gentle to her. Such a good puppy!

(click on photos to see bigger images)

Chef Amelia's Valentine's Treat!

Amelia has made you a little Valentine's snack. Feel free to drop by for a taste!

She insists on doing things by herself these days. "I do! I do!" I made her a PB&J sandwich for lunch today, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. Instead, she yelled "I do butter! I do butter!" I ended up eating the sandwich I made. For Amelia, out came a little bowl of peanut butter, one of jelly, a slice a bread, and the coveted holiday butter knife.

We made the mistake the other day of letting her try to butter some bread. We were out to eat and it was a desperate attempt to keep her from crawling on the table. Now everything that requires a knife to spread is "butter."

That's another thing, knives. She's hooked! What to do when you're 23 month old wants a knife?! Luckily, Gina gave me the great idea of letting her use butter knives. Thank goodness we have an odd collection of little dull knives.

Meal time involves much less eating these days -- it's all about the preparation.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

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Mama, look!

This is what happens when you turn your head for one minute... the artist's canvas shifts from paper to skin! Yikes!

I thought I was so smart stripping her down. Experience has taught me that shirts are much easier to clean when you don't have to deal with ink. I've gone through enough aerosol hairspray to make Al Gore shudder.

Looks like an extra long bath tonight is in order for tonight. Bring out the apricot scrub.

I hope this doesn't mean that Amelia will have a future as a tattoo artist... uh-oh!