Christmas Day 2012

We spent Christmas 2011 with family in Mount Vernon, WA at my sister's house.  It was so wonderful to be surrounded by family for Charlie's first Christmas.  We spent Christmas 2012 as a family of three at home in London.  We all missed our family in the states, but we had a great time being in our own home.  

Charlotte was SO excited to wake up and open presents and find gifts in her stocking!  Her excitement made things that much more fun for Jason and me.  It was a truly magical Christmas.

Charlotte's big gift was a Balance Bike.  It is basically a small wooden bike with no pedals.  The idea is that she'll use her feet to push herself forward.  As she learns to balance, she'll be able to go faster and faster and by the time she's big enough for a pedal bike, she'll already know how to balance on it!  

She still has a bit to learn . . .

That's better:

She got lots of other great gifts but a sure favourite (The most favourite being the wooden play fruit.  Thanks, Elliot!) was a set of Dr. Seuss books that Jason found for her.  Luckily, they're lots of fun to read, because they're getting lots of use!

Here is a partial shot of the aftermath:

After naptime, we headed out to see Emily Bemily and Rob and Mimi (and the twin boys in Mimi's belly!).  I forgot to bring the camera, but Rob sent us some photos of the evening's activities.  There was loads of playing:

  

Delicious food (including a Christmas pudding that Jason made!):

And one big, beautiful Crock Pot.  Thanks, Mary!!

Hope yours was as great as ours!

Happy Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2012

While I was still on my way home from Miami, Jason and Charlie prepared the house for Christmas Eve festivities.  By the time I got home, there were Christmas crackers on the table and a duck feast in the oven!

After our food settled a bit, we went up to our neighbours for some more food and drinks.  Jane is a chef, so there was an incredible spread!  

We had a fantastic time eating and drinking and enjoying each other's company.  A great time was had by all!

Though nothing about our great evening could top this moment of seeing my husby and sweet baby girl after nearly three weeks of being away:

Merry and Bright

Jason, Charlie and I got all sorts of festive before I left for Miami.  We turned on the Christmas music, got a tree and I even got a red pedicure (it was actually the most terrifying pedicure of my life, but that's another story . . .).  

Here is Jason with our tree at The Secret Garden Centre here in Crystal Palace.  For the first time EVER we chose one in under 45 minutes!  It was the first one we saw!  It took about thirty seconds for us to choose it.  It was a true Christmas miracle.

And here's my handsome man carrying our prized tree home:

Charlie's favourite part about getting a Christmas tree was that one of her most favourite people in the world, Rob (Emily Bemily's dad), was there.  SHE WAS PUMPED!

There was a brief tree decorating hiatus to head to Build a Bear with the Hallidays.  Charlie chose and outfitted a stuffed dog for Emily for Christmas and Emily made a bear for Charlie.  It was nap time, so Charlie was a bit sleepy and dazed for the whole process:

Turns out she's totally traumatised by the animal stuffing process:

But it wasn't anything a little snuggle from Rob couldn't fix:

Her favourite part of Build a Bear?  "Washing" the dog she made for Emily in the "bath" station.

The rest of the evening was spent napping and then decorating the tree:

Charlie loved unwrapping the ornaments and putting them on the tree.  Here she is trying to show some pretty ornaments (that Grandma Peterka made!) to the camera:

We had a great time decorating, I'm just sad I'm not there to enjoy it!  December 24th can't come soon enough!  Until then, I spend all my free time gazing at pictures like these.  I can't get enough of this kid!

Pa and Grandma Barbara

Pa (Jason's dad) and Grandma Barbara (Jason's step-mom) came to visit with their friends Karen and Mark.  They flew in from France where they'd been living it up for the first part of their vacation.  We all had a fantastic time visiting and site-seeing together but I think we all agreed that their visit could have been longer!

Here are a few pics from their visit:

We sneaked a group photo in by using a big (rain spotted) mirror:

Here is a group of Pa and Grandma Barbara with their good friends Karen and Mark:

And a group photo of the Hungerfords on Hungerford Bridge!

One of Charlie's favourite parts of their visit was holding their hands and walking around the city:

We tried to get a good shot of the three of them, but couldn't quite manage:

But we did get a good picture of Jason and his dad in front of the Tower Bridge while we were visiting the Tower of London:

Our last hurrah together was to take a flight on the London Eye.  Jason and I had take a ride on The Eye back in 2007 for our fifth wedding anniversary and we were excited to ride it again.  It was a stunning view at dusk, but it made it a bit difficult to get pictures of people in our pod!

Charlie still talks about them all the time; we can't wait for them to come back!