Christmas report

For the few weeks leading up to Christmas, Aria had a great time going around to the neighborhoods and looking at lights - she would exclaim "li-ights!" around every corner. She was really excited about them.

Unfortunately, she got really sick for the week before Christmas. She was running a really high fever - it reached 105 on occasion - and we were pretty scared by the whole ordeal. All that she would do for the whole week was just sit in Hosanna's lap (or Kathy's or my lap if Hosie wasn't around, though she definitely wanted Mommy more) and be held. She would cry if we put her down for even a second. Hosanna ended up taking the whole week off work and just staying home with her. Luckily she started feeling better a couple days before Christmas, and by Christmas Eve she was back to her usual happy self. (It would be a few more days before Hosie and I would really recover from it, though - I think we were more traumatized than Aria was.)

Hosanna crocheted her a hat and matching mittens, and she likes putting them on (although they usually come off pretty quickly afterwards).


When Christmas Eve came around, Aria got pretty excited about the tree - although at first she didn't understand that there was stuff inside the presents. She just wanted to play with the packages, bows, wrapping paper, etc.


I was very grateful to be home for a week. I bonded with Aria a lot during this time - probably even more after the hectic holiday stuff was over, but it already started on Christmas Eve. :)


For Christmas Eve dinner Kathy brought out her mother's handpainted china, and flexed her catering muscles with a kickass dinner: crepes with mushroom sauce, beet salad, and nutloaf. Manny contributed a squash soup that we all agreed was the best we have ever had. And Hosanna made apple pie for dessert.



When Christmas day came, I think Aria started understanding the presents a little better, with help from Mommy and Tobin. Of course at times Tobin got a little overeager with helping her out... :)





Tobin took this picture - he's getting pretty good with the camera. It joins the legions of pictures taken of me at Christmas when I badly need a haircut.



I have never seen Manny look bad in a picture.



Gabriel and his friend Soshi (I'm not sure if I'm spelling that right) also joined us. She is from Shasta City and told us a lot of interesting things about the goings-on up there.



Looking good in a new sweater! (Thanks Nana!)



A cuddly polar bear was the other big hit for Aria.


After we opened presents at our house Christmas morning, we got packed up and left to go to San Jose. We forgot to bring our camera (grrrr) so there aren't any pictures for the trip, unfortunately.

Aria was really wiped out from the excitement. She slept in the car for the entire trip to San Jose, which is totally unheard of. We hung out with Grandma & Grandpa for a while before Lisa, Jason, Machen & Adamen arrived. We had a great dinner that my Mom made - quiche, chicken with cherries, rice, salad, and fancy wine. They had brought the English crackers - not snacks, but the little toys that you pull with the firecrackers in them. Each one had a little whistle that was tuned to a particular pitch. With the whole set we were able to sit around the table playing Christmas songs, each person doing one note. It was really fun.

Our trips to San Jose continue to get more fun for Aria - obviously everyone gives her lots of attention, but she especially enjoys playing with Machen and Adamen now.

She had a really hard time sleeping. Gee, wired up from all the presents and tons of activity during the day? Also she seemed to be scared of the pictures in my parents' spare room. We had to take them all down before she would go to sleep.

The day after Christmas, Lucas and Cyndi joined the rest of us for dinner, which featured Hosie-made fajitas. (I don't know how, but I didn't end up cooking anything this year. It just never came up. I was happy to have the time with Aria instead. :) We grilled them about their wedding plans. Turns out they are getting married on Lucas' birthday next July. We are intrigued by the idea of having your wedding anniversary on your birthday. Lucas said it was the best birthday present he could think of. Awwwwww....

The following day we drove up to Santa Rosa for Manny's birthday. We almost didn't go, because it seemed like Aria had totally reached her limit with so many scary strangers and just needed to go home. But in the car on the way home, she mellowed out and started laughing & having fun. We called Manny and found out that they were going to be gone for a whle before we got there, so we decided to go - we could relax for a little bit before she got mobbed by admirers again.

For the birthday celebration we went out to sushi at Manny's favorite place in Rohnert Park. There we discovered that Aria LOVES sushi. She ate a whole bunch of miso soup, udon noodles, tempura veggies, edamame, and even some of Hosanna's veggie roll. We were impressed.

We decided to risk it and drive home that night after dinner. We weren't sure how that would go over, and were prepared for her to cry a lot on the way home. But actually it worked really well. She played with some toys in the car for a little while, then fell fast asleep and didn't wake up until we got home. We were able to put her up to bed immediately without much fuss.