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