It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We've got all of our decorations up, Christmas cookies baked, presents wrapped and under the tree...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Miriam so far seems to be loving the Christmas season.  She is definitely more interested in presents this year than last year, and her favorite game is to drag presents out from under the tree and try to stand on them.  She thinks she is pretty hilarious, and giggles endlessly as soon as she starts heading towards the tree.  She's gotten to open a couple presents so far, and is interested in tearing open the paper, and stacking presents up on top of each other.

We've got a couple Advent calendars in our house (thanks to my mom!) and Miriam has been loving her chocolate advent calendar.  Every day after dinner, she gets to open her calendar and have 1 small piece of chocolate.  The first day, she didn't really know what it was, so she kindly offered to share a bite with me and Mario.  The next day, she immediately shoved the whole thing in her mouth and was saying "a ba, a ba" (a bite) in the middle of chewing her current bite!

We had our Christmas party here last night, and it was a great time!  This is our 7th annual Christmas party, and we look forward to it every year.  Last night we made homemade gluhwein (spiced, mulled red wine) for the first time, and we are glad it turned out well.  We normally buy it premade in bottles, so it was fun to make it ourselves this time.  Miriam took place in her first "white elephant" gift exchange, where she promptly took any opened presents and brought them to me.  She ended up with a singing/dancing penguin, which she loves.

We've got about 1.5 more weeks in the states until we fly to Germany for Christmas.  During that time, we've got 2 Christmases, (one with Mario's family and one with just the 3 of us), a work Christmas party, and plenty of packing to do and Christmas cookies to eat.  We love the holiday season!

For now, I'll leave you with wishes of holiday cheer, and some recent pictures of Miriam.  Notice how long her hair is getting!!

Miriam reading books in her rocking chair.

Reading Christmas cards and practicing crossing her fingers. 

First day of her chocolate advent calendar.  

First taste...

Big girl, dressed up for our Christmas party! 

Fun times with Daddy...

And with Mama! 

Sitting and eating on a chair (what a big girl!)

Opening a present...

Woohoo, dancing penguin! 

Putting together her princess castle with Daddy...

"This box is pretty interesting!" 

"And hey, I fit in it!" 

Where's Miriam? 

Peek a boo! 

Funny girl, laughing at herself

We are thankful!

This weekend of thankfulness, we find ourselves thinking of all the wonderful blessings in our life.

We are thankful for:

*our beautiful, sweet, funny, affectionate, assertive daughter, who makes us smile every day
*our families, who love us, support us, and make us laugh
*our jobs, and the fact that we have jobs that we enjoy
*our friends, both near and far
*our health
*each other...life and the journey of parenthood are better when you've got an amazing partner by your side

We've spent some good family time together this weekend, and we are still excited for 2 more days!  Miriam is growing so much, and looking more and more like a little girl.  We put pigtails in her hair for Thanksgiving, and she looked adorable!

One of the most interesting things this year has been watching Miriam's personality grow and emerge.  She's really turning into her own little person, full of quirks (she hates having her hands dirty) and funny things (she loves to boss around the cat).  It is hard to capture her energetic personality in still photos, but we try.  Here are some photos from recent weeks:

One of her new favorite activities...sitting in the box! 

What's on my head? 

"Mama, your robe is comfy!" 

(She pressed the beaters so hard to her face while trying to eat that she left red marks!)

Helping Mama make Thanksgiving dessert by licking the spatula...

Pigtail time! 

First one done! 

Our adorable little girl! 

Family photo! 

Cuddly girl...

Exhausted girl after Thanksgiving dinner...

November fun with Miriam

We've been busy here with the beginning of holiday season, and lots of playtime and new experiences for Miriam.  We are flying to Germany for Christmas again this year, so our holiday timeline has shifted up a bit. I've already started Christmas shopping, which is always a lot of fun.  Miriam and I went to the store today and she loved to stomp around the aisles, touching things.  Luckily we weren't in a "one finger" or "no finger" store!

I've got parent teacher conferences this week, so I'll have a couple of late nights.  In addition, I made some major changes to my reading group that require a lot of work, and the changes start this week, so I'll be finishing prep for that between conferences.  Mario also has a big week at work, with people in from out of town and big meetings.

Miriam has been having a lot of fun lately.  We've been finger painting, jumping in leaves, playing with rice and beans, playing inside boxes and taking walks outside when the weather permits.  She's so funny...she loves to take walks.  When we are walking, sometimes she'll say "all done", and when we finally get home, she says "more".  We walked to the library this morning to return books and then tried some finger painting again.  Last time we did finger painting we were outside, and we hosed her off before bringing her in the house.  This time, I put her into her highchair and put some paint and paper in front of her.  She got one finger in the paint and stuck it out to me, saying "all done".  She doesn't like having her fingers/hands dirty and will want to wash them right away if they get messy or dirty.  After I wiped off her finger, she did a little bit more painting with a paintbrush and some sponges.

She's really into giving kisses lately and will walk around saying "mah", the sound she makes when she gives kisses.  She also loves it when we kiss her "ouchie spots", if she gets hurt or bumps into something.  Now, sometimes she'll deliberately bump into something and then come to us for kisses.  And lately, she's been really into this poking game, where she pokes you and expects you to jump and make noise.  (Mario started it.)  The thing is, it is definitely a one-sided activity.  You can poke her, and she won't jump or make noise...she only gets to poke us.  However, she will poke herself and sometimes jump and laugh.

Here are some recent pictures of her fun times:

Big girl feeding herself yogurt...

She LOVES to be carried around in her laundry basket. 

Wearing Daddy's shoes after work. 

Drinking milk from a big girl cup. 

STOMP STOMP STOMP

"Look, more leaves!" 

Going into the fort...

Uh oh, where is Miriam? 

Peek a boo! 

"This box is JUST the right size." 

"Show me empty mouth!" 

Wrestling with mama...

She was VERY insistent that Mama get in the box with her...

Big girl in her painting clothes

"What is this stuff on my finger?"

"Painting with a paintbrush is much better!" 

"Miriam, where is the cow on your shirt?"