Christmas Chaos

What's a Christmas celebration with children without a little chaos when the gift unwrapping begins?

-Evan, no, that's Landon's present!
-Evan, don't take the ornaments off the tree!
-Evan, look at the camera and smile! No, don't run away!
-Dan, wake up!
-Uh oh, where's Evan?

We got together with the O'Neil-Bailey family the week before Christmas, and had a fabulous celebration with yummy food (Mis - I need that chicken soup recipe, and Fran - anytime you want to bring the peppermint cheesecake I'm there!). Here are a few shots from the festivities.

Unwrapping is a Team Sport







I'm not sure which one of them is more excited.



Evan is no match for Aunt Mis, child wrangler.



One of my favorites, when Fran opened the restored photo of her parents.



On Christmas Eve, we went to my parents' house. Evan puts on his game face.



Liam works his adorable baby pose.



"Yeah, yeah, Grandma, you pose for the camera, I got better things to do."



"Including overwhelming my Dad with my cuteness."



I look forward to this age when they will smile when you ask - most of the time.




Photo Credit: Andie Zimmerman

It's not all fun and games. Someone has to do dishes. What do you mean, help? Taking pictures is helping, right?



What, giving 'the look' isn't helpful?


Photo Credit: Andie Zimmerman

Mama Hugs. Thanks, Andie for taking this! Hands down, one of my favorites.


Photo Credit: Andie Zimmerman

Merry Christmas

Christmas Card Outtakes

Photographing a toddler for anything, at any time, is daunting enough. But when faced with the task of getting one, JUST one, good shot that 1) has eye contact and 2) is in focus, well, I was sure world peace would be an easier task. Then Evan throws me for a loop and does the unheard of - he wears the outfit, he smiles, he looks at the camera, AND he takes direction. The hardest part was picking which picture to use.

Dear Santa, I can explain...



I'm just going to do a little quality control work.



Suckers!



Wait, Santa's going to come in where?



I need to investigate, while posing for a Currier & Ives painting



Phew, this modeling stuff is exhausting work

'Tis the Season

What's a Christmas season without a miserable picture of a toddler with Santa? It's better than I imagined. They just happened to snap the picture after he stopped to take a breath from crying. I love the "I will cut you, Mommy" look that I'm getting. He'll laugh at this one day, right?

Puppy Love

For as much as our dog might drive me bonkers (the dog came with the husband as a package deal), Evan adores him. He's even started scolding us if we scold the dog. The dog, for his part, is equally enamored of Evan, and has been since Evan was about six months old and started on solid foods. At this point, the dog realized that Evan was a mobile snack machine. How appropriate, then, that two friends should share their snacks together.





I should add that Evan is enjoying some yummy Italian cookies I bought at this cool new place in New York called Eataly. Yum-mo. It's a good thing I don't live in NYC - I'd eat there every day.

Snow!

We had our first significant snow today and Evan couldn't wait to get out and play in it. This year was much more successful than last year's attempt.

He checked out some decorations.



Then moved quickly to making his first snowball.



Guess who taught him how?



A cold, wet butt is no deterrent for this snow baby.



The hardest part? Getting him to come back inside.



Good thing Mamaw and Papaw dropped off a pair of waterproof boots the same afternoon.