Merry Christmas! Ho, Ho, Ho!
Here I am with Nanny and Papaw on Christmas Eve (with baby Santa!)

Since my brother and his wife aren't going to be able to join us for Christmas, they came into town early to visit. And with them came Laurel's first Christmas present. She's never opened a gift before, so we weren't sure how she'd react. As the pictures show, she knew exactly what to do with that shiny paper!



Thanks Uncle Daniel and Aunt Amy for some great presents!!

This weekend we received almost 10 inches of snow in our corner of Northeast Tennessee, which is very rare, so we took full advantage of it by introducing Laurel. She wasn't too big a fan of getting all bundled up, but did pretty well once we were actually outside.
Here she is in her pretty white bunting, which we didn't think we'd have a chance to use.
We were really blessed that my brother Daniel and his wife, Amy, could make the trek from Charlotte, so we met them at my parents' house. Considering that they're both engineers, a construction project soon developed in the wonderfully packable snowfall.
Here's dad, Daniel, Amy and Tim inside the boat, fort, thing... Talks are resuming about possibly making it a full-fledged igloo soon.
And here's our home fully decked out for a White Christmas.

Tim, Laurel and I are tucked in here at the house on a very snowy night. There's already more than eight inches of snow on the ground and more is expected through tomorrow. Laurel has been saying "dada," "mom" and "nana" and now she says "tree." She loves our Christmas tree, along with all of the lights and decorations in our house. She has also started pointing at everything.

Now, without further adieu, her highness:

The house is now fully decorated for Christmas, including a completely kid-friendly tree (at least we hope!) Laurel loves the lights and the ornaments. I probably tell Tim at least ten times a day how much I love our house at Christmas. And it's true. The soft glow of the Christmas tree, the sparkle from the the ornaments and the stockings on the fireplace put me in the Christmas spirit. (And that's our cat Shelby watching from the back.)

Laurel is definitely in the babbling stage. Her highness prefers an audience, but if one is not to be found, she is quite content to chat up her toys, the cats, the walls...you get the point. For about a month now she has been saying "Dada" (or some variation of it). A couple weeks ago she started with "Nana." Through all of this I've cheered and grinned and encouraged, patiently waiting for my own time in the spotlight.

And finally last night she walked up to the couch I was sitting on, looked up at me, and very clearly said, "Mom."

It was worth the wait.