Holiday Rewind

Let me just issue a disclaimer that blogger (the online program I use to make the blog) and our internet connection have not been friends for a bit. Combine that with a busy schedule and I am finally posting all of these pics. Apologies to Tante H that I don't have more pics of her on here..... Our holiday season kicked off at my parents' house. An early Thanksgiving meal was enjoyed by all....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend Thanksgiving with Mike's family this year. It was the biggest Thanksgiving dinner I had ever been to. There were 11 adults and 12 kids counting Peter! It was a lot of fun seeing everybody. Too bad we had to spend about 9 hours on the freeway to get there. We decided to be "spontaneous" and leave the day before Thanksgiving. We didn't get in until 330am.

Peter was a trooper and ended up falling back asleep in his new digs after being held by Daddy for 40 minutes. Peter's cousins were so sweet. They made him a place setting!

We got to eat at the kids' table. That's Chuckles in the center doing his "kung fu" pose. (He told me that is what it is called).
the rest of the "adults"

enjoying some time with Papa Chanoli

Enjoying some more time with Grandpa Pipkin. Peter had so much fun with him!

enjoying dessert

All of the kids really liked spending time with Peter. At times he was "surrounded".
Here they are testing out his toys.

Cousin H was always nearby to lend a hand. This is on our way to the famous Cowboy Museum in Oakdale.

A fun time was had by all...
outside the Cowboy Museum

The next day we celebrated Christmas! The kids were all very excited to be celebrating Christmas so early!
Opening one of Peter's first presents. This book was from his Nana. He loves it!! If you are not aware who the WonderPets are, you need to check it out.

Are we keeping you up, Uncle David?

Mama Chanoli made a lovely feast of standing rib roast, yorkshire pudding, potatoes, etc. We polished it off with a Chocolate Trifle.

Getting ready for church. I love my cousin!

Needless to say, it was an eventful weekend. By the time we hit church, Peter was exhausted. We hit the road around noon and didn't make it home UNTIL 8pm. BOO. Oh well. We had fun! December..... We had a great month in December. Peter turned 9 months old. He starting doing the commando crawl and developed a huge interest in books. Seriously. He will spend about 10-20 minutes with the SAME book. It is awesome! I am not sure what he is looking at, but he really likes to "read." He started doing a great new "pose." A friend at church named it the "Billy Idol" pose. It is pretty entertaining. Picking up a Christmas Tree with Daddy... At our annual church Christmas party, my dad was asked to read a portion of Scripture. He tried to read a portion of it with Peter on his lap, but that arrangement didn't last very long. This shot is of us trying to get a picture before the reading. At our annual church Christmas party, my dad was asked to read a portion of Scripture. He tried to read a portion of it with Peter on his lap, but that arrangement didn't last very long. This shot is of us trying to get a picture before the reading. Gino decided to sneak in and flash a smile. Mike took a picture of the parents taking pictures of the kids in the Christmas program.... This picture is in lieu of a 9month post. He looks so sweet when he is asleep!! An attempt at a Christmas card picture. We weren't happy, so we decided to go with this card instead:



During December we had fun meeting up with friends. Here is Peter sitting with Uncle H and Auntie C. Hanging out with Char with Peter's favorite object: a keyboard. I love my Uncle Joe! This is the sequence of events that occurs when Gramps enters the room. 1) Peter sees Gramps 2) Peter must be held by Gramps 3) Peter is happy to be held by Gramps!

We had a great visit with Tante H. She was here for 10 days!

On Christmas Eve, Peter started to feed himself. Prior to that, he was just playing with the puffs.

Mike is super excited about his present (Star Wars Encyclopedia).

Here is Peter being overwhelmed by presents (these are Aussie animals from Tante H).

We gave Peter a book for Christmas. It is a fun little book about Joe Bruin wandering around different spots at UCLA. Go Bruins!

Enjoying presents on Christmas morning underneath the table.

The holidays wouldn't be complete without visits from old friends. This is someone that I have known since pre-school.

our annual trek to the beach on New Year's day

enjoying some time with omi.

we were also fortunate to get a visit from our favorite pseudo brother, james


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!