Our (other) New Year's Baby

Keely Smith celebrated her 2nd birthday yesterday by enjoying a peanut butter doggie ice cream treat called "Frosty Paws," stealing some of Gavin's toys and contributing to the general mayhem of our home.

Yummy!

Gavin took advantage of the excitement to make a break for Keely's water dish and splash away (something he's been trying to do ever since he started crawling) ... but he was captured before he could dive in!

Gavin's 1st Christmas!!!

The past few days have been a flood of paper, bows and toys for Gavin and his parents. It was a wonderful first holiday for him and for us as we watched him take it all in and got to spend time with family.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!







Here's Gavin with his gift from Santa, a little toy car that he likes to push across the floor...




Inspecting the box his gift from Mommy and Daddy came in...








Wrestling with "Bear Bryant," his new Teddy Bear that Tamma (his great-grandmother) sent from Alabama (Don came up with the name)...












Enjoying new bath toys from Mimi and Grandad in Colorado...













And trying out a fancy new bath towel from Grandma and Grandpa Price!

Pre-Christmas Lunch with Friends

Who is this woman?

She was our cheerful waitress at The Weary Traveler, where we gathered on Dec. 23rd to meet Sarah and Matt (en route to the Elberts in Milton), Jackie and Indy (on their way to Glen Haven from Ann Arbor) and Polly and John (who strolled over from Jenifer Street).

We had a great time catching up before everyone headed home for the holidays and throwing out not-so-helpful naming suggestions for expectant moms Sarah and Polly.

Get out your party hats...

...and take this time to celebrate with friends and family. We hope you have a fabulous holiday and look forward to catching up with some of you in the next couple of weeks. Hope Santa makes it down your chimney and you get a little time to relax and spread joy to those around you! Check back here soon for some tales from Gavin's first Christmas...

9 months and 2 weeks

Not your grandma's rolling pin...

Each holiday season, I am involved in the preparation of Danish Kringle. It's a pastry-type dessert with date and nut filling, topped with frosting and more nuts. Yum. We only make it once a year, and I even have made it on my own before, but it's a project best tackled with at least one other person. My mom and I teamed up this year -- as we have since I moved back to Madison in 1999 -- but this year we had extra help in the form of a super-cool rolling pin. Shannon was kind enough to send me this gadget for my birthday. You pour cold water in one end and screw the cap back on and that helps keep the dough from sticking. In the words of Joyce: "Oh, this works great!"

We think this year's batch turned out even better than last year's. Sorry I don't have pics of the final product -- I forgot to charge my camera battery beforehand! It looks quite a bit like this photo I found on Google, if you are wondering what the heck it is.

O Tannenbaum!

Thanks to Nat King Cole and Summer's Tree Farm, we were able to Deck the Halls today for Gavin's first-ever Christmas. We didn't have a tree last year because we went to Mexico. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed having one until we started putting it up. The tree was pre-cut, something we figured made more sense since Gavin was close to nap time when we made it out to the place. It also only cost $12 (!) and as Linus once said, all it needed was a little love (and two strings of lights).

Toss 'er back

Gavin made the most of his one-hour stay at the Famous Footwear holiday party for the children of employees ...

...he hung with the Clauses, opened his first-ever Christmas present (he liked the paper more than the toy inside) and paused for some liquid refreshment.

More of a Dog Yeller than a Dog Whisperer

If we've learned one thing in the last month or so, it's that Gavin loves dogs -- his dog to be specific. He gets a big grin when you either say "Keely" or "doggy." And we also learned the other day at Polly's house (check the link to The Sackmont Blog) that he has a special way with Fozzie the Border Collie.