Wintery outdoor fun

Testing out the ice with Daddy

Getting ice fishing tips from Daddy

Showing Daddy how it's done

A classic pic: Carl's grandpa releasing his catch of the day.

Lily getting a sled ride from her grandpa

Whee!!!

Due to the chilly temps, Lily was able to try walking, fishing, and sledding on Carl's grandparents' frozen pond. She really enjoyed playing on the ice, and I know Carl enjoyed having Lily partake in some of his favorite activities from childhood. Give her a year or two and she'll probably be involved in the ice hockey games as well!

Christmas morn

Donuts from Santa!

Whenever we asked Lily what Santa was going to bring her, always at the top of her list was donuts. Santa must have been watching and listening.

Enjoying her donuts in her new rocking chair from Grandpa Deetz.

Carl getting in the spirit of the day

Santa found Lily in Indiana and brought lots of fun things including snow pants, boots and mittens, many books, a very warm & cuddly blanket, and a baking set. Lily also received fun gifts from the Deetz side of the family including cuddly animal friends and an adorable rocking chair from Grandpa Deetz & Uncle Zander and an awesome "magic" painting set and wonderful book, The Peace Book, from Aunt Ingrid. Lily's certainly one lucky little girl!

Gratitude

On the road again

We have officially returned from our travels and are settled back home snug as bugs. I will, of course, update with more pictures and stories from numerous celebrations, but I just could not continue with new posts without first giving due recognition to my amazing, phenomenal, superb, stupendous, fantastic, incredible, truly terrific tot traveler, Lily. Our adventures this year included a 10-hour drive to Indiana, a subsequent 7-hour drive to St. Louis, and then for the grand finale: a 15 1/2-hour trip from St. Louis back to Baltimore. Our drive home yesterday included just about every unpleasant weather condition possible: rain, wind, snow, sleet, fog, and even occasional sun glare. Carl, the trooper that he is, drove the entire distance home, including the 50-mile stretch of blinding snow somehow coming at us horizontally and making it virtually impossible to see anything. I was a bit alarmed at one point when he commented to me, "If you see me driving off the road, let me know." We have both certainly driven in worse conditions but never with Lily in the backseat, so this was the most difficult drive we have experienced to date. But, we made it, and I am overjoyed to say that we will NEVER have to drive that route again at Christmas time!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!

Our travels began last Saturday. We had planned to leave in the evening and drive overnight as we had done in the past, but then Carl suggested that we try driving during the day to see how it goes. We were amazed at how well Lily handled it. She napped occasionally but otherwise talked, sang, played with her aquadoodle, read books, listened to music, played with her ponies and Little People, and snacked on "parrots" (pears), yogurt, apples, pretzels, and cheese. Not once during the entire trip did she cry or complain. She made a few brief moans in Pennsylvania followed by a little spitting up which we attributed to car sickness, as we were traveling on some curvy roads in higher altitudes, but that was it - she even handled car sickness well!

Again, she was perfect during our drive from Indiana to St. Louis. What amazed me even more was that we went straight from the car to my family's Christmas dinner and celebration with 16 people in attendance, and she didn't miss a beat. She ate well and had a ball opening presents with all of her cousins.

The drive from St. Louis to Baltimore was tough on even Carl and me, but she handled it like a pro. She asked to get out of her carseat a couple of times, but it happened to be at times that we were getting ready to stop anyway, so it was no problem. She remained her upbeat, spunky self the entire time. Through all of this, she also remained on schedule from beginning to end. She always napped during her normal times, going down anytime between 11:30 and 1:30 and sleeping her usual 1 1/2 hours. She tended to go to bed 1/2 hour to 1 hour later than normal, but what are vacations for! She ate really well too, especially in the car. She had a few too many treats at various family gatherings but didn't we all? :)

Overall, we spent a glorious week with our families made possible by Lily's good spirits through it all. It was a lot - probably too much - to ask of a two-year-old, but she rose to the occasion. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lily. And many thanks to our families, especially Grandma & Grandpa Deetz and my parents for hosting us on our travels. We had a fantastic time and are forever grateful for the good food, great company, and many fond memories!!

Ready to party

Our Retro Girl

Hangin' with the Deetz Clan

Helping Great Grandpa with the fire

Fun times with Daddy

Dave is not pleased with the dwindling pot of the famous freshly popped popcorn

Spending time with Pam, Livy, and cousin Lainey

A visit from Santa

Even Grandpa received a present from Santa

We were very lucky to have Santa visit us in Indiana while visiting the Deetz side of the family. Lily was a little bit wary of the man in the red suit, but not so much so as to not get her present from him. She did make sure not to turn her back on him though. Christmas this year was by far the best with Lily. She was actually so excited that she had a hard time falling asleep on Christmas Eve as she kept asking, "Santa coming?" The first thing that Lily did when she woke up on Christmas morning was to ask if Santa was here; she then looked out of the window and said, "Nope." Lily checked out her loot under the tree when she went downstairs, but then decided to wait a bit to open up the gifts as she suspiciously eyed the door that Santa had entered a couple days prior. Overall, all of our celebrations have been fantastic, and we are not even done celebrating with all sides of the family yet!

Multitasking while on the phone

Lily certainly has been watching and learning.

Literally speaking

Our weekend here was of the productive type. We were able to do some long-outstanding cleaning projects that will make it a little easier next month when we officially begin to pack up the house for our upcoming move and prepare it for sale. Crazy! We also had a lot of play time with our little one. We broke out the playdough, fingerpaints, aquadoodle, crayons, and markers for some art time fun. Lily couldn't get enough of it! She also helped me make chicken & dumplings and helped Aunt Ingrid bake *real* (very tasty) Christmas cookies. Carl and I were also able to sneak in our almost weekly weekend lunch date (now that Aunt Ingrid is here to watch Miss Lily). All in all, it was a very good winter weekend.

My highlights from this weekend were actually verbal exchanges between Carl and Lily which included the following:

• Carl was playing with Lily and said, "You're such a little monkey" to which Lily responded, "I'm a girl".
• Carl has started taking nature walks with Lily. On these walks, Carl points out all kinds of outdoorsy things to show/explain to Lily. While they were walking on Saturday, Lily commented that she is sick and has a cough. Carl was joking that he had not heard her cough and didn't think she was sick at which time she actually did cough. He laughed and said, "Where did that cough come from?" She answered, "From Lily's mouth."