A Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.....

We are all recuperating from a busy Christmas and are winding down our 2008 holiday season. Ursula had a wonderful time meeting Santa and was thrilled with all of the gifts he left under her tree. We started Thanksgiving weekend by making a trip to Hershey Candylane where she saw real reindeer and met Santa at his "Cottage".


Is that who I think it is?
It is who I think it is!
I like this guy!
Next up, Ursula got to see Santa twice again on the 20th, 1st with him coming by our house on our local firetruck...every year we get a mini parade right in front of our house the Saturday before Christmas (I think Mommy is more excited than anyone in our family :) Although Ursula was fascinated by the sirens and horns and Santa waving to her from the top of one of the trucks!
Then she went to a VFW function where her Pappy belongs and she sat with him again and received her 1st present. Obviously by this time, she was more comfortable with him (even if he and Mrs. Claus looked a little shady)...she didn't care one bit!
So then it was onto our long Christmas weekend and we decided it would be better to let her take a couple of days to open all of her gifts since Mommy went a bit overboard this year and we knew she'd be getting gifts from others as well. We let her open her stocking on Christmas Eve and then half of her gifts from Santa on Christmas morning. We went to Nana and Pappy's house for breakfast and there she opened more presents. After that, we went to Gammie and Paw Paw's house where there were many more gifts to be enjoyed and then one more stop at a family friend's house for dinner and a few more gifts. Going all day with no nap, she actually did very well and not 2 minutes into our final car ride home, she was out like a light and didn't even wake up when we got her changed for bed, which is a first! The following day, we put away all of our gifts and organized her newly redone play area and she finished opening the rest of the loot. I've included a few pics of her enjoying one of her favorite new items, her table and chairs and tea set. Over the last few days, her Daddy and I have had more cups of tea than I can mention :), and I don't even like tea! All in all, we had a great time celebrating this first and last Christmas with our family of 3, next year we look forward to a Christmas as a family of 4!


Just a few of her presents from Santa under her very own tree...
First one, going kinda slow....
This is actually pretty fun!
Starting to get into the groove...
Showing Daddy her new cell phone.
At Nana & Pappy's house helping to clean up. As a side note, Ursula is a very organized present opener. Every single piece of paper that she ripped off had to be given to someone nearby to throw into the garbage bag and if anybody happened to miss a piece, she stopped everything to go pick it up and put it in. Very helpful!

Once everything was open, it was fun to try out the paper as a necklace and/or headband...All tuckered out after a very long day....

A few of her playing with her favorite toys, her new table and chairs and tea set...


So as you can see we had a blast this Christmas and we're already thinking ahead to the next couple of holidays that Ursula wasn't home for last year...Valentine's Day, Daddy & Mommy's birthdays and of course, Mother's Day (we just missed that one last year!). It's hard to imagine that she has been home 7 months already, the time flies by so fast, but she is doing so well, and understanding so much in her short time in America, we couldn't ask for a better little girl.

We also want to wish everyone a Happy 2009! We were going to go out to a friend's house, but decided to just stay home and be homebodies this year. Neither of us were really in the mood for any big celebration, and besides, I'm lucky to make it to 10:00 anymore :) We had a relaxing evening and a nice dinner at Gammie's house this afternoon, so it was a very peaceful transition for our family. I'm actually exhausted just thinking about how 7 short months ago I became a 1st time mom and in a few more short months, I'll be mom to 2 kids! Whew! Speaking of that, I go for my 20 week ultrasound tomorrow afternoon and we will be finding out whether Urs will have a little brother or sister...I'm just excited to be able to start buying things in the appropriate colors! I am so not a yellow and mint green kind of person! I can't believe that I am halfway through my pregnancy already, again, how time flies! So, I will make a post this weekend and we'll see how many of you voted correctly! You have 1 more day to cast your vote, looks like the boys are the favorite of our viewing crowd....guess we'll see.....