Heart-felt ornaments

I doubt there are many that love the Christmas season more that my mom.  She anxiously awaits each year to decorate the house and the tree, to shop for gifts, and to listen to Christmas music.  I hate to tell on her, but I borrowed her car one afternoon before Thanksgiving, and she already had a Christmas mix in the CD player!

Years ago, she made a set of felt ornaments for her Christmas tree and another set for Granny (which I am fortunate enough to have).  Now, when I say she made them, I mean she lovingly sewed each and every one by hand.  And, there are dozens of them.  In all of my memories of decorating the tree, I always remember hanging these ornaments.  When we were younger, there might have been a squabble or two over who got to hang a particular ornament or how high one sibling was able to reach versus another.  And, as we got older, I remember protecting these ornaments.  That's because Maggie, my parents beloved cocker spaniel turns into an ornament eater at Christmas-time.  And, her favorite ornaments to eat just happen to be my mom's felt ornaments.  I remember all too well the night my dad and I fell asleep while we were supposed to be guarding the tree.  Maggie ate two ornaments that night and my mom was not too happy to see her hand made treasures torn to shreds.

Fortunately, Jackson is not an ornament eater (and neither is Lily).  She has done really well with the Christmas tree and likes looking at all the ornaments and lights.  We hung a lot of the felt ones low enough that she can reach them.  Here are just a few of my favorites.

And, Lily's favorite is this bunny.

This is the only one that she removes from the tree regularly.  She will walk around the house with it, and tonight I saw her giving the bunny ornament a little hug.

And, our tree this year. 

I am glad that these ornaments are making memories in our house this year, and I know they will for many years to come! 

Fifteen months

We went for Lily's 15 month checkup last week and she got an excellent report.  She is growing long and lean right now, just over twenty pounds (20 lb. 3.5 oz) and 31 inches long.  She got two shots this time, but hardly even noticed because she was too busy trying to free herself from Tim's hold.      

Some of her favorite things to do right now are play outside, play outside, and play outside.  She could spend hours just walking around in the yard, throwing balls, and picking up rocks.  Besides playing outside, she loves going to preschool, stealing away our electronics, playing with her Little People and Weeble toys, and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She seems to understand most things you tell her (listening is another story) and is picking up new sounds and words all the time.  She has a couple of animal noises that she likes to make...lion, tiger (same as lion), owl, and dog.  Many of her words start with a "d" sound, like "doh".  That's her "no" and she uses this one quite frequently.  She occasionally surprises us with something more difficult, like the other morning she said "belly button" clear enough for us to understand.  She is very interested in body parts right now and can point out many of them to us.  She likes making friends wherever we go, waving hello and goodbye to people.  Just yesterday the pharmacist saw her and said, "Hey, it's our little friend!".  Last week, she played peek-a-boo with him and had everyone laughing.  She has us laughing most everyday, sometimes several times a day.  Not to say that she doesn't throw in some frustration every now and then, but she is SUCH a joy.  Here is our little girl...15 months old!

I couldn't pick a favorite, so I just shared them all.  I love that you can see all four of her little teeth when she smiles.