Christmas: Part I

The face of pure bliss. More on this later...

Fortunate enough to live near both our families, we celebrate with both sets of beloveds in person each year with a little planning and flexibility. This year, we celebrated our first round of Christmas early with the Bresslers. And while Stella is still wrapping her head around the bizarre concept of Christmas, Santa and flying reindeer, she is always thrilled to see Grandpa Harte, Grandma Jannie, Aunt Mandy and Uncle Jeff. As you can see, early into the present opening phase of the holiday, we quickly realized that all our thoughtfully chosen gifts and carefully planned surprises were quickly and resolutely trumped by cardboard boxes and packing bubbles.

That is, until Stella opened her oh-so-thoughtful and oh-so-generous gift from Grandma Jannie and Grandpa Harte. I wish you could all hear Stella ooh and aah as she explored each (furnished!) room for the first time. It was truly magical. And watching Jan and Harte enjoy the surprise was a treat as well.

And while Stella loved basking in such generous attention, it pleased Brian and me to no end to see her delight equally as much in giving a present to Grandpa Harte. She was so proud of her painting and hopped right in to describe all the colors in his new painting for the office.

And what would Christmas be without cowboy hats and shared snacks?

And here, my friends, is the visual definition of "a good sport." You rock, Porthos.

It was a thoroughly lovely and peaceful start to our holiday; thank you Bressler family! And thank you, Jeff, for all these fabulous photos! (Check out his wonderful site here.)