Merry Christmas!

 James and I were so excited for this year's Christmas.  I was definitely more excited for Keira's presents than my own.  We had a wonderful Holiday, full of family and fun!  Keira fell in love with Grandma and Grandpa Spry's piano- luckily, they bought her a keyboard to take home, so now she can play the piano any time!  She would wake up at 6 am and try to sneak into the living room to start banging on the piano.  She didn't understand that other people (especially baby Charlie) might not enjoy her music so early in the morning.  She also fell in love with my Grandpa Ridder's harmonica.  Aunt Erin taught her how to blow into it in different places, and Keira would walk all over the house blowing into it- I was sure she would pass out from the breathing, but she never did.

 She discovered that Grandma and Grandpa (and Mommy) were firmly wrapped around her finger and would always come into the room with her to play, even when they were busy... She definitely knows who is boss.

She also discovered how much fun it is to sing while playing the piano... and her song of choice was almost always ABC's... Grandma could even play the tune and sing along.  We're pretty sure she's a musical prodigy.  Look for her album in stores soon!

 

 As always, the best part of the holidays was seeing family, especially baby Charlie, who celebrated his first Christmas by, well, sleeping thorough most of it, despite the incessant piano playing.

 We finally pried Keira away from the piano to open presents.  She found that her take was pretty large, and she kept handing them to Grandma and asking, "help!" Grandma would get her started and Keira would take care of the heavy tearing.  I think she enjoyed opening the presents more than some of the presents!  One of the funnier moments was when she opened a present to find some jammies, which she pulled out of the box, threw on the floor, then looked further in the box, confused about where the toy was.  She's not a clotheshorse quite yet!

 She also enjoyed "helping" others open their gifts, and opened a few too soon... oops!

 On Christmas morning, we found that Santa had visited Keira!  Despite her fit when she visited him, he brought her a brand new tricycle!  We were so excited to watch her reaction, and she didn't disappoint.  She came out of the bedroom, walked out to the living room, and stopped in her tracks, smiling, pointing, and making this "o" face.

 She was so excited to see what Santa had brought, and had a great time riding her trike around the house all morning.  Santa definitely picked a good toy for our good girl!

 After opening our gifts from Santa, we made our way over to Grandma and Grandpa Arce's for homemade Cinnamon rolls and MORE gifts!  By this time, Keira was quite adept at opening gifts and required less help.

 Her favorite toy there was the Sit and Spin from Grandma and Grandpa Arce.  She led Grandpa over and told him to "sit down!"  Grandpa found that it is much easier to get down on the ground at 1 year old than at Grandpa age... but he was a great sport and got down to help her spin on her new toy.  She LOVES spinning, and this toy has had a lot of use at our house!

 Another of Keira's favorite things was playing with her new BFF, "Ya-ya," better known as Sonya.  Keira followed her around all weekend, LOVING being a big girl and playing wither her cousin.  Sonya was a great playmate for Keira, Keira loved her, and kept asking us "Where Ya-ya go?"  Poor Sonya couldn't get a break!

We had another great Christmas, can't wait for next year!