Merry Christmas

The girl had a very merry Christmas indeed! While she may not have understood what all the decorations and silly jingle songs were about, she sure caught on quickly to presents and paper-tearing, even if every package was still a ‘happy birthday’ to her (we can’t yet get her to say merry Christmas). She tore through multitudes of ‘happy birthdays’ and, to her credit, she stopped ever so briefly to appreciate each one before clamoring for the next ‘happy birthday’ to open.

I'm secretly grateful that we still have a year to figure out how to handle the whole Santa thing. Sure, it's heart-warming to watch your child believe in something so magical and benevolent as Santa Clause (even if he does, in his present incarnation, promote rampant consumerism and materialism). Still, I hate the idea of laying this big fat lie on my child, whom I hope to teach by example the importance of always being honest. But how do you avoid the cultural myth when it is so pervasive? It seems more cruel to deny a child the magic of Santa because of parental guilt and moral hangups than it does to feed them the lie.

Come to think of it, I'm beginning to suspect most parents go along with the whole racket for the sheer benefit of being able to cajole their children out of bad behaviour by telling them, "Hey, kid! Santa's watching..."

What's your take, those of you with children? In the meantime, here are some Christmas photos of the girl:


Christmas morning, opening presents by the tree.


A kiss for Grover.


Lily (roasting by an open fire) at Nana and Pop's for Christmas dinner and more presents!




Very carefully "signing" a card for Nana.


Celebrating Christmas at Grandma's house on Boxing Day, with more presents, of course!


Weezie shows Lily how to put together her new puzzle, and Lily learns that lions go "rrrrooooaaaaarrrr."

Happy Birthday, Lily!

The calendar finally caught up to the girl! It's official, she's 2; although she's already been practing hard, very hard, at living up to the number these last few weeks. Lily was excited as could be today. She had all of her favorite things: A big bunch of balloons (or buh-doos, if you please) and her favorite people gathered round her. Add to that a whole lot of pretty paper to shred, some delicious cake, and some fine new toys, and girl was in her two-year-old glory.

Lily learned to say a very exciting new phrase last night, and when she woke up this morning, it wasn't long before she was squealing out choruses of "Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!" She was even more excited to see a happy birthday present waiting in her room for her when she woke up.



Later in the day, the whole family descended on Lily's house and ate cake, drank, and made merry. Here she is with Weezie, Grandma, and Mom--four generations--and her brand new Raggedy Ann.












After everyone went home, Lily insisted on trying on some of her new clothes and playing with her new toys. She was having so much fun, she would have stayed up all night if we had let her.







Happy Birthday, Princess! We love you so much.


Edited to add:

Mom and Lily made these beautiful and delicious snowflake cookies as a birthday treat for Lily's class at school. Lily was a very enthusiastic cookie-baking helper who quickly discovered that cookie dough tastes pretty darn good!




Also, we had Lily's two-year checkup this week, and to our astonishment the girl grew nearly 4 inches in 6 months! She has zoomed upward from the 50th percentile for height at her last doctor's visit to the 70th percentile this visit. No wonder her pants all seemed to shrink so quickly this Fall.

Mothers

When I was born I was the fifth-generation female in our family's living matriarchal line. My great-great-grandmother was in her 90s and I remember attending her funeral as a toddler. Lily will be lucky enough to know her great-grandmother Weezie, after whom she is named, during the early years of her life.

Five generations: 1970


Pictured here, from oldest to youngest, are Susan Fisher Bauer, Sarah Bauer Schoellkopf, Louise Schoellkopf Harris, Cynthia Harris Beil Baker, Amy Beil Harper.


Four generations: 2007


Pictured here, from oldest to youngest, are Louise Schoellkopf Harris, Cynthia Harris Beil Baker, Amy Beil Harper, Lillian Louise Harper.

Family Visit

Before Mom returns to work next week, we decided to make the trip up to Reading to visit family that we don't get to see as often as we'd like. Naturally, Mom documented the day in photos!


Lily meets Chester Beagle.


A study in purple: Lily charms her Grandpa Tom.


With Great Grandma Weezie. We chose Lily's middle name, Louise, to honor her Weezie!