Clara and Claus

I was able to get Clara doing her 'ho, ho, ho'...

Ho, ho, ho

Today in the car on our way to school I was trying to get Clara to say "Santa Clause" becuase he was going to be at her school for their special Christmas luncheon.

Me: Say 'Santa Clause'
Clara: Ho, Ho, Ho

So she may not want to say his name, but she certainly knew who I was talking about. Too, cute! She kept on 'ho, ho, ho'ing all the way to school. I never did get her to say Santa Clause though...

Santa Hat

Inspired by the professional photo collages I've seen around town, Clara and I had a photo shoot at home with the 'ol digital camera and our Santa hat. I'm pretty happy how they turned out. I'm going to get a collage frame to put them all together.











P.S. - Kelly hooked me up with a photo editing tool that allowed me to make my collage. Awesome!

Getting Ready for Santa

Now that we are back in town it is time to decorate the Christmas tree. We didn't want to leave Mary on her own to defend the tree from Clara and George (the cat) during our trip. So we are doing our decorating a little late this year. I never realized how challenging it would be to keep all of the glass and delicate ornaments out of Clara's reach. Really, trees should be inverted so you have more limbs to decorate at the top where kids can't reach and fewer at the bottom (it would also leave more room for presents ;)
Clara is actually putting an ornament on the tree. Odd since she spent most of the time pulling them off. I think I'll be finding ornaments scattered around the house now til Independence day.

Even though Clara doesn't remember Christmas from last year, she is still starting to feel the excitement of the season.

Back from Vacation

Patrick and I just got back from celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary. We took a 5 day cruise out of Miami on the Carnival Imagination Nov. 30-Dec.5th. It was great! And, it was our first vacation without Clara. Grandma Mary came down and stayed with Clara while we were gone.

Our ship went to Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico, and had a day at sea. We spent our day in Cozumel on the ship enjoying all of the ammenities while the other cruisers were off ship. We when on the water slide, played putt-putt, and had the pool and hot tub pretty much all to ourselves.

On the last day at sea, we played Back Gammon, ate, ate and ate some more, enjoyed complementary drinks at the farewell party. We also won a Slogan Trivia game and got a Solid 24k (plastic) Gold Trophy.

The last day at sea was also our anniversary. It was a fun and romantic trip. Just what we needed.