Fun with the camera... and lights!

We've had such a wonderful holiday season, and have truly enjoyed having Chou off from work for more than Christmas day and New Years day, and we've packed a lot into this month. We've celebrated the birth of Christ as well as Chou, E, and my grandmother, baked dozens of cookies to share, attended several Christmas parties, hosted Christmas Eve dinner, shopped/made and wrapped countless gifts, visited with relatives near and far, learned a few family recipes, ate way too much, frolicked in snow, enjoyed one of our all-time favorite sermon series at church, and we have enjoyed every minute! However there are still a few things we're trying to sneak into the last few days of vacation time. I've been meaning to let E play with Christmas lights and snap a few fun pictures for the past several weeks, but with all that's been going on it just happened this past weekend :)  We're also making handprint and thumbprint salt dough ornaments tomorrow on New Year's Eve. Better late than never! They'll still serve their purpose: next year we'll unwrap them to hang on the tree and marvel at how small E was a year ago. Pretty sure she hasn't grown that much in the past few weeks. But I digress.

Last year my due date with E was December 2nd, and everyone who heard my due date said, "Oh, fun, a Christmas baby!" As a mama who was ready to have this baby as soon as possible, I hated these comments! I was due one week after Thanksgiving and three and a half weeks before Christmas. I was not having a Christmas baby! She did indeed arrive one week after Thanksgiving and didn't make me wait til the 25th (thanks, baby girl!) This year, however, I'll embrace my December baby as a Christmas baby and have extra fun with all the decorations and lights :) Here are a few of my favorite shots of my one year old!

And here's my favorite. Mostly because I tried repeatedly to get some pics with the hat and she kept taking it off and throwing it to the ground. As soon as I forgot about the hat, sat it next to her and let her be, she put it on herself and I snapped this :)