Lily and Cousins Mary and Katie

Triple trouble: Lily, Katie, and Mary

Cute little monkey, Mary Mackenzie, wearing her Christmas gift

Out and about, shopping with the pro, Grandma Meyer

Sleeping on the plane back home

In general, Lily does really well with all travel and does especially well on the plane. On the flight home, she fell asleep 2 minutes before take-off and woke up about 15 minutes before landing. Perfect!

The Big Bash

The hall pre-party

The guests of honor

Grandma Meyer and Lily

The entire family

Back row (left to right): Tim, Katie, Zach, Angela, Mom, Mary, Dad, Me, Lily, Carl

Front row: Suzanne, Nick, Susie, Jeff, Abby, and Courtney
There are now (unofficially) 16 of us, and we seem to just keep growing!

Meet me at The Magic House

Lily and Nick

Water Lily

Lily is fascinated with all things water - from soaking her hands/arms/body in Terra's water dish to splashing around in the bathtub. I think that Lily would have stayed with this one activity the entire time if we would have let her.

Lily had a blast in the play area for tots.

Abby and Nick as news anchors...I believe Abby is receiving some breaking news from her co-host.

Courtney, Abby, and Nick taking care of business at the pretend Pizzeria

I have really fond memories of going to The Magic House, a children's museum in St. Louis, when I was a kid. My mom, Carl and I took Lily and her three cousins there this past week, and it was even better than I remembered. They definitely have expanded and added a lot of new exhibits. Usually children's museums don't have a whole lot to do for toddlers, but I was very happy to find that they had an entire section of the museum dedicated to toddlers called Baby & Me. Needless to say, we had a great time, and we will probably have a membership to this (and many other) museums when we move back to St. Louis.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning at my mom and dad's house.

Laughter and fun rule supreme at the Pellerito celebrations. One of the traditions of the Pellerito Christmases is to give our own rendition of the "12 Days of Christmas". You would think that after all of these years, we would have improved, but what fun would it be if we were actually good? Above you can see my mom and Aunt Chris doing their part as the "8 maids a-milking". It really is a lot of fun - and comfortable, as we all come dressed in our holiday pajamas.

Christmas with the Meyers

Lily with Grandma and Grandpa Meyer

Lily with her Godfather, Uncle Jeff

Let it be known that Lily does not play equally with all children. She definitely has her favorites, and her cousin Gannon is definitely at the top of her list. Here Lily is giving Gannon some lovin'. He was so sweet to humor her. They played together so well, and I really wish that we lived closer so that they could get together more often.

We're back, baby

Okay, so I have a lot of catching up to do. We just returned from a week-long visit with my family in St. Louis. So many good times - I don't even know where to begin. I'll try to make a brief timeline of events here. We flew into St. Louis on Christmas eve and had a celebration that night with my dad's side. The next day we went to my cousin's house to celebrate with the Pelleritos (my mom's side). Unfortunately, my sister-in-law had to have surgery on her gallbladder which resulted in a few days in the hospital, but my this meant that my nieces and nephew spent a couple days at my mom and dad's house; so Lily got to spend more time with her cousins (yay!). The big event of the trip was a surprise party for my mom and dad for their 40th wedding anniversary, 60th birthdays, and their retirement (all of these events happened between August and December of this year). It turned out to be an absolutely wonderful party, and we were able to keep it a surprise! Really, it was the best, and we had sooo much fun. Like all good things, the trip has ended but left us with the greatest of memories. Thanks to everyone for making this one of the best Christmases ever. We love you and miss you so much! (Of course, many pictures are to follow.)

Let the festivities begin!

These are a few pictures from our first Christmas gathering this year with Carl's sister, mom, and grandma. We actually had 4 generations here all together - Lily is one lucky little girl! Our next Christmas celebration will be with my dad's side tomorrow night. We can't wait!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good: Everyone is okay. Our little clan is happy and healthy and at home.

The bad: On Wednesday, Lily had her first tumble outside which resulted in a knot/bruise/scrape on the right side of her forehead. She also has a considerable abrasion on the right side of her nose. Luckily, she had her pacifier in her mouth which I think is the reason that we avoided a busted lip as well. Lily has been walking everywhere and crawling is becoming a less frequent way of getting from point A to point B. With this in mind, I thought that I would let her stand next to my car while I got our bags out for school/work. Mistake. She took approximately 5 steps and promptly face-planted on the concrete. She is a tough cookie though. She cried for about 15 seconds and then was over it. Putting on the ice (and later that night, the peroxide) on the boo-boos was far more traumatic to her. Even though I know that more incidents like this are sure to follow, it is still hard to forgive myself for letting this happen (especially right before Christmas pictures!).

The ugly: Last night Lily and I were in a car accident, not a fender-bender, but a full-out accident. I was waiting to turn right onto a very busy road, and there was a car coming down that road with the right blinker on. The car slowed to turn into the area that I was turning out of, so I proceeded to go, and the same time, the driver of the other car changed her mind and decided not to turn and proceed straight. Ultimately, the front left side of my car collided with the front right area of her car. Like all accidents, it happened in an instant. Fortunately, it was a very cordial experience. The other driver, a middle-aged woman, and I immediately hugged when we got out of our cars, checking to see that everyone was alright. She had an 18-year-old daughter in the passenger seat that was pretty shaken up and asked if I could give her a hug to calm her down. An odd request, but it worked. Lily was entirely unphased by the entire process. She very calmly sat in the back seat in her carseat, looking around and smiling when the other driver and her daughter came over to see her. We were very close to home when the accident happened, and Carl came to pick us up while the car was towed to a nearby auto shop. We won't hear back from the insurance company for a little while about the ultimate fate of my car, but I think that the odds are against the car being repaired. My 1998 Pontiac Sunfire, while having been a very reliable and good car to us, does not have a lot of monetary value anymore, and the car has some pretty significant damage. (The entire front of my car is pretty much toast. Even though the hit was to the driver's side, I could not open the passenger side door of my car). So, it looks like the car that we were planning to get in March may have to be moved up to January. We may end up getting a different car than we were planning on since we potentially have $0 trade-in value, but we'll see.

It goes without saying that I am very thankful that the only things damaged were the cars. I have played this accident over and over again in my head, imagining the 101 ways it could have been avoided and the 101 ways it could have been worse. Ultimately, it is what it is, and I am grateful that it was nothing more. I will take this experience as an opportunity to remind myself that during this season of hustle and bustle, I need to slow down and remember what is important.