Day 334: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I'm hoping all of my friends and family had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. Mine was absolutely fabulous. I loved spending time with my family, especially my siblings whom I don't see very often; I had a great meal cooked by my brother Donald; and I got some awesome gifts. Of course, the best part was watching LB's excitement over the holiday. She was so happy seeing all of her new toys, visiting with everyone, and generally being the center of attention. This morning, I asked her to make a "Merry Christmas" face and the result is the photo above. I love it!

The Christmas festivities began early around here. LB woke up, and Papa and I showed her what Santa had left in her stocking: a box of raisins, two apple cereal bars, some arrowroot cookies, and a bucket of sidewalk chalk.
Here she is in an apple-cereal-bar stupor. She had to unbutton her onsie to let the belly out.
The traditional Lovejoy-Fordham Alliance Christmas breakie is chocolate croissants.
While we had our breakfast we opened our presents from my dear friend, Melissa. I got some yummy smelling lotions and soaps, some Xmas socks and sweets, and LB received a very cool Elmo cellphone. She had a lot to say to Elmo.
Dialing the Cookie Monster:
After breakie, we went up to Victorville to spend the rest of the day with my family. We took all of our presents to Grandma and Grandpa's house, which meant Heidi--the official Lovejoy present arranger--had to rearrange the gifts before they could be opened.
She did a lovely job. It looks like a lot of gifts because it definitely was. There are a lot of people in my family, and we all like to buy presents for one another. Also, in the Lovejoy household, one gift is opened at a time so that it can be thoroughly ooohhed and aaahhed over, and the receiver can thank the giver. This means it took a good two hours to open all of the presents. I think this Lovejoy Christmas tradition drives Fordham a bit nutty, but tough cookies!
We tried to get LB to pass out a few gifts but that only resulted in some angry present hurling. I think she was a bit confused about what was going on, but Papa gave her a nice cuddle and she quickly calmed down.
Here are some of the pressie highlights. For Heidi, a cool Labyrinth t-shirt from the Lovejoy-Fordham Alliance:
Donald looked good in his jacket from the Alliance:
Heidi was pleased with her book from Daniel.
Daniel gave Mom this beautiful art piece. It was made by a San-Francisco-based, Japanese American artist in her 80's.
And the Alliance gave Daniel a new water bottle with some math equations on it since he wants to be a math teacher.
Donald got a hammer! Yeah!
Thanks for this beautiful gift, Donald.
Of course, the person with the most presents was Miss Lilybeth Mary. I think there were seventeen gifts under the tree for her! It's good being the baby.

She loved this massive, stuffed dog from G and G-pa.
Her very own sunnies from Grandpa.
LB also got to open the cats' presents. It's a can of food!
Some new blocks.
Auntie Heidi made LB this beautiful quilt. The lace was handmade by my brother-in-law's grandmother. Thanks so much, Heidi. We'll cherish it!
LB also loved her Tonka truck from Papa (though Tom and my dad got into a friendly debate over whether LB liked the truck or her new crayons from Grandpa more). The first thing LB did when she saw the truck was to climb in.

And Auntie Heidi gave her a ride.
This is LB's face when she saw the Tickle Me Elmo from Mama (I think she liked Elmo the best.)
Tickling Elmo.
And giving him a ride.
After pressies, it was time for lunch. Donald barbecued some game hens, made some veggie burgers, and whipped up some delicious sides. He also made a pumpkin pie! I provided the Xmas cupcakes. Here's LB's very own mini-cupcake.



And here's the resulting sugar high. Fortunately, for Tom and me, LB is staying at G and Grandpa's house until Monday. So good luck to them! Actually, she was so excited today, she didn't have a nap, so I think she'll crash early.
LB is staying over because she's got to get lots of playtime in with her new best friend, Auntie Heidi. And I need to get lots of work done before my break is over.
But I'll worry about the work tomorrow. It's Christmas!