Family Christmas

We had our family Christmas last night before we leave for Atlanta tomorrow morning!

Abby Jane finally got her riding toy!

A Belated 10 months...

Abby Jane turned 10 months last week, and I neglected to mention it with everything else we've been up to.  For the sake of our own records, I do want to share the new things our big girl has been up to these days.

These days, Abby Jane...

- babbles all the time, sentences of sounds all strung together

- is great at identifying things, looking at the tree when we say, "Where's the Christmas tree?", crawling towards Jake when I say, "Go get Daddy!"  

-started doing the hand sign for "more" this week (we're teaching "more" and "all done")- but we think she thinks that it mainly means "Puffs"-so she does it often!

-is really getting good at imitating things we do

-has 6 teeth- four on top, two on bottom

-can walk several steps at a time  

-has become a very speedy cruiser!

- her major obsession in the food department is cheese 

-books are some of her favorite toys- she loves turning pages, lifting flaps, and tonight she actually cried when a book was finished!

Swings also remain a delight, and she's good at leaning forward to go down slides.

She's becoming so independent- silence has come to mean mischief is incurring... 

and she has no problem crawling out of the room we are in- gone are the clingy days of old!

Another thing we LOVE that she's into is kissing.  Big, wet, slobbery, open-mouth kisses.  They are the flat-out best.  As long as she doesn't lay any on any of the little boys in her life.  

Mainly, we are having such a great time sharing Christmas with her- such sweet memories! 

Tis the Season...

On Thursday, Jake took us girls out on a fabulous Christmas date.  We went first to Beverly Hills to see the crystal chandeliers they hang on Rodeo Drive during Christmas.  There were banners hanging that said, "Deck the Hills." And any trip to Bev. Hills would be incomplete without a stop at Sprinkles Cupcakes- I got chocolate peppermint- best cupcake in my life- and Jake had spiced eggnog.  

The Grove is a fabulous shopping/restaurant area that does amazing decorations for Christmas...
There are even fountains like at the Bellagio (though obviously smaller!) that are choreographed to music.  Abby Jane was enthralled by the fountains.  We ate at The Farm, which had seating by the fountain, so we had an entertained child during dinner.
At 7 p.m., real snow is blown from the roof of the theater right next to where we were eating, and Christmas music was playing... it was very magical!

Here is the massive nativity scene at the largest intersection in Malibu- kind of random in so secular a town, but very neat nonetheless.

This morning was the Santa Monica to Venice 5K that incidentally benefits Harvest Home (see previous entry).  This is our 3rd Christmas to do it, though I mostly walked last year due to a large belly!  Unfortunately, Jake was under the weather this morning, so just us girls (this is us post-race)

 ... joined the crew- Gross girls, Santa and Mrs Claus (aka the Dubachs), the Roberts and Sammy, and the Aufhammers.

And here are Abby Jane and Sammy pre-race, getting their game faces on... I can say that Abby Jane took Sammy down on that last stretch , but I think Sammy's dad let it happen.  We surely did miss Jake, but he's feeling a little better, so it was good for him not to go.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Here's a picture that I love that didn't make the Christmas card...

On Sunday night, we joined our small group in giving a Christmas party for around 70 people at Harvest Home, a home for homeless pregnant women.  This is our third year to be a part of this night, and I think it was the best-organized year yet. Here is Kathryn and others getting dinner ready in the kitchen!
There was a campus-wide Christmas party at the cafeteria, and one of Jake's students put on the old Santa costume.  Here is Santa afraid of crying baby who had just climbed over her mama's shoulder when mama tried to thrust her in strange man's lap.  Mama gave up and sat down.
Here is Santa more comfortable now that baby realized mama would not try to give her away again.
On Monday morning, we met our dear friends Carrie and Mihret at Griffith Park again, and this time we were joined by the Parmelee ladies (Cailyn is 2, Jaana is almost 6 months) who caravanned with us from Pepperdine.
The whole gang having a picnic lunch...
The girls had a GREAT time- Cailyn and Mihret can keep up with each other and entertain everyone else.   Here are Mihret and Abby Jane swinging...

And Mihret helping Abby Jane swing...

Someone discovered the first present under the tree!

Yesterday, Jen and Lucy (five months) hosted a gingerbread decorating party, complete with homemade hot chocolate!

Here are Em (and baby Jones) decorating with 2 year old Canon!  None of us made tons of progress on our houses, but we had a great time playing and letting the little ones play!  Abby Jane danced for Lucy to make her laugh- and then they just laughed at each other for about 5 minutes.  It was precious.

Walking Little Lady

Abby Jane took her first steps on Thanksgiving Day at the Roberts' home, where we had Thanksgiving!  She walked from Jake to my mom, who was in town for a few days.  It was so fun to share that with so many friends who were also there!  This video was the day after Thanksgiving- excuse all the boxes- we were in the process of hauling out all our Christmas things when we shot this.  I also apologize in advance for the seeming repetitiveness of this, but there is a lot of far away family who want to see as much as possible!

She can now go several more steps before stopping!  Here are a few more pictures from Grammy's visit and getting our tree!  Which Abby Jane loves to wave "hi" to, by the way...

The Roberts family, who graciously hosted 14 for Thanksgiving dinner!

On Thanksgiving Day...

It's still novel to us to drive by the ocean on the way home from Home Depot with our Christmas tree!
A rather bad picture, but here is my starfish wreath- I got the idea from Coastal Living.  It's still sans ribbon- looked too fussy, I decided...

Putting the angel on the tree was a special honor and tradition in my family growing up.  This is Abby Jane's first year to have a turn!

I promise that for Christmas, she is...

getting a ride-on/pushing toy!  Bless her heart to be so resourceful in the meantime.  This was taken before bed the other night...

Prom, a party, and blueberries

Last Friday night was our friend Ryan's 30th birthday party, celebrated in "vintage" prom style at a place in Santa Monica.  That was later translated into "wear prom style from favorite decade"- so my mom sent a formal I wore to a Christmas dance in high school and I tried to make my hair really big like the early 90's- which didn't work out very well... and Jake dressed up as a chaperone!!!  So if Jake's a chaperone, and I'm dressed like I'm GOING to prom in the 90's, what exactly does that make me as his date???  QUESTIONABLE, I know.  It was SO fun, though...

We did the awkward prom pose in front of the picture backdrop they made.

The girls...

Stewart, Jake, and Jake the chaperone writing someone up (he had the works- a nametag, no belt, short pants, white socks, and a POCKET protector- it was hilarious yet almost painful to see)...

On Saturday, we went to the 2-yr.-old birthday party of our precious little neighbor, Jacob, who Abby Jane LOVES!!!!  It was going to be a treasure hunt on the beach, but THIS nasty smoke blowing in from the awful fires... 

dictated a relocation of the party to indoors.  This picture is really dark, but Jacob's mama Tiffany is due Christmas Day!!

How darling are these little cupcakes with sharkfins??

And sailboat apple slices!!

And finally, this picture does not do it justice, but Abby Jane is the messiest blueberry-eater!!! It goes everywhere!  But I do love her getting those antioxidants- and loving them!!