Ho, Ho, Ho

A late Happy Chrismahanukwanzakkah to you and yours from the "Three Schneiders". And, my goodness, it's 2009 too now isn't it? Happy New Year everyone!

So, to recap our holidays, here we go! The season started with a visit to the other Schneiders on the morning of Christmas Eve (Lou's brother Robert, his wife Michelle, and cousins Morgan and Katrina) where Josephine thoroughly enjoyed her first up-close-and-personal experience with a real Christmas tree. Ours was fun and all, but only topped out at 10 inches, so this was much more spectacular. Here are the big girls showing Josie all the ornaments. She was very impressed.
And I even managed to score a photo of the three of them all actually looking at the camera and smiling, thanks to some good big cousin-work on Morgan's part. :)

After opening the first Christmas presents for 2008, Josie went on a pony ride. (Sidenote: we actually bought this for the girls ages ago, well before Josie, so it was very strange to see her riding it.) Thanks very much to the Schneider family for the cool new music table and jack-in-the-box. They are both a big hit in these parts! :)

We then made the annual holiday trek to Xenia, where we spent a quiet Christmas Eve night at the Johnsons for what would be the first of several days with Grandma & Granddaddy, Aunt Amanda, Uncle Michael, and Baby Lyla. After some last minute wrapping, we hit the sack and woke up Christmas morning to lots of surprises from Santa!

After some breakfast, Josie got started and really enjoyed opening her gifts and some of everyone else's. She was definitely into it this year, and I cannot even imagine what it will be like next year when Lyla is a toddler and Josie is (wow) 2 years old. Here's Josie opening her tea set from Grandma & Granddaddy (more photos of our first tea party in a later post).

And here she is opening her super cool shiny red baby grand mini-piano from her "Tia & Tio" (that's Aunt and Uncle in Spanish because Aunt Amanda and Uncle Michael is just too darn hard to say). The piano is awesome and we're already having a blast with it. In fact, Louie mastered "Three Blind Mice" just moments ago. (Thanks M&M!)Besides the great new table and chairs from G&G, Josie got her first tricycle!!! Her Kettler Blossom was an instant hit as you can see from these photos of her first ride. (Thanks G&G!)

Oh, I should mention that these are only photos from the first half of Christmas morning. Unwrapping all these gifts wore Josie out so we actually had to stop midway through and let her take a nap before launching into phase two. I didn't get any photos of the second half, but I'll try to take some pictures of her with those things - namely her new doll - and get them posted soon.

Now, for the rest of these photos, I'm not going to try to pretend like I remember which day is which. Since we were lucky enough just to have a few days of relaxing and spending time together, we spent the majority of the week just hanging out - which was wonderful. Here are some highlights.

Josie holding Lyla in the bouncy seat - "Tio" feeding Josie Sunchips -

Josie playing dress-up with Grandma's Who Dey scarf -

"Tia" and Josie enjoying the new jack-in-the-box -

Manda & I doing baby exercise with our girls together - In fact, let me say here that one of the highlights of Christmas this year was definitely watching my little sister be a mom. I always new she'd be a wonderful mother, but it's something different to see her in action. She's a total natural, and Lyla is truly blessed to have two such loving and devoted parents. Here are Manda & Lyla having "tummy time" -

This next one cracks me up! We'll call it "I"ve Got My Eye on You Bella" -

Followed by "Man, I Just Turned My Back for One Second..." Here are all of the girls - Claire, Josie, Claire & Lyla (and to think it only took about 30 shots to get one good one) -

Josie in her new chair - Granddaddy-o and all his girls - Grandma and her girls - The three of us cuddling on the floor watching "Mama Mia" (which is way better on stage than on film) - And now we spring forward to back home in Cincinnati. After what was probably the best Christmas we've ever had (thanks so much mom & dad, manda & michael), we headed home to totally rearrange Josie's playland, put away some outgrown toys, and settle in for another week together. Here are some photos from the days since we've been home -

Starting with Josie sporting some of her new duds, including her new Uggs that her Daddy totally spoiled her with - Oh and this is one of Josie's new favorites. We'll call this her "Ewww face" and I see it about 50 times a day. Her new thing is going around and pointing to things on the ground (like cat hair, or dust bunnies, or lint, or whatever) and saying "Ewww" until I come and get it. This was actually a teeny tiny piece of paper that she braved picking up herself, but I still got the "Ewww" and had to promptly remove it and throw it away. Too funny. Here's Josie enjoying her new Magnadoodle, which she loves when Louie & I aren't busy playing with it -

And playing with her letters and numbers on her new easel -

And hanging out in her new chair, that she can now get into all by herself -

And coloring with crayons in each hand, because it's just more fun that way -

And taking off her pajamas, which has happened a few times now that she's conquered the zipper -

And sitting on Venus now that she's conquered the cat - There are lots more photos to share from this holiday season which I hope to get posted soon here as well as on Josie's Shutterfly collection. Stay tuned & Happy Holidays to you all!