December 2011 Pics

December 2011

December was a blast – we started off the month with decorating the house for Christmas and putting up the Christmas tree. Aubrey loved watching the decorations go up, especially the tree. She had fun playing with the ornaments and wrapping herself up in garland. She was dragging the garland all over the house with Izzy following close on her heels. One of her favorite Christmas decorations was a German music box that mom gave me last year. I turned the knob and she would pull it out to make it spin and play. It was sweet seeing her so fascinated by an old-fashioned toy. She also fell in love with Nutcrackers – or as she called them “crackers.” I got her an inexpensive “cracker” from Target and she treated it like a baby doll. She put him to bed and covered him in a blanket and she pretend fed him with all her other dolls. She has some stuffed toys that sing Christmas carols that she spent all month dancing around the house to. As adorable as it was, the tune of Frosty the Snowman now makes me cringe. Needless to say our house was full of holiday spirit! We did Christmas crafts and a bit of baking, looked at Christmas lights (twice), and went to breakfast with Santa at Neiman Marcus downtown. Breakfast was a hit! We were eating breakfast when Aubrey caught sight of Santa – the look on her face was priceless. She craned her neck and looked completely overjoyed. When Santa came to our table to talk with us she clammed up and simply stared at him. She got a balloon Frosty from Elfie and danced around the room to children’s songs. After breakfast we went downstairs to sit on Santa’s lap but she was having none of that! We have an adorable picture of her screaming and holding her hands up in a defensive posture. Love it! Christmas Eve we drove to Austin and spent the night at the Driskoll. We enjoyed dinner and drinks with Grandpa Garcia and then returned to our room to put out cookies for Santa and hang the stocking. Christmas day Aubrey had a blast opening her stocking. Santa brought her an owl ornament, some makeup items for her new vanity at home, sunglasses, stickers, toddler sized pens and a hello kitty notebook. Once we wrapped up Christmas stockings we headed to Dennis & Martha’s house, where there was lots of food and more presents. I think Aubrey was overwhelmed by opening presents but she seemed to enjoy it. Bitsy gave her a huge dollhouse with a bunch of dolls and a horse, some games, a guitar, a piano flute and harmonica, and I don’t remember what else. We gave her more play make-up items and some play hair items, as well as a ton of other stuff that I can’t remember. When she opened the makeup she said “Oh happy day!” which of course made our day. We opened gifts from the rest of the family and headed home. Once we got home we went upstairs to see what Santa had put in her room…Santa left a lovely white vanity from Pottery Barn Kids with an adorable pink stool. It was the perfect spot to store all of her new makeup and hair accessories. She loved it! I can’t believe she is already such a girly girl, but I’m not complaining!

In between all the Christmas fun Justin and I celebrated our six year wedding anniversary. 6 years! I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. We got all dressed up and went to dinner downtown at Ocean Prime. The highlight of dinner was my cocktail that was served over dry ice – fantastic! We had never been there but the food was delicious and it was a great place to people watch. After dinner we headed to Times Ten Wine Cellars where we were given a tour along with a tasting. We enjoyed the tasting a little too much and wound up buying a case of wine! It was a great night!

I think that’s about it. Aubrey is doing great and keeps us on our toes at all times. I can’t believe she is about to turn 2!