Joy to the World ---- STILL!

This past December,Christmas music was a big hit with Gianna. I'm talking a BIG hit.  She learns lyrics very quickly and her repertoire grew at a rapid pace.  I wanted some good Christmas music that was created for children and happened upon this little CD set I found at one of those music kiosks at Target. 

123 Favorite Christmas Songs

It's a 3 CD set for less than $10 and I'm telling you it's the best Christmas music I've heard....with the broadest range - from secular to religious - and very culturally diverse.

So why am I writing about this in February?  Because Gianna is STILL begging me to play Christmas music.  I accommodated her through mid January, but I felt I had pull the plug at some point.

So, the playing of the Christmas CD's has ceased - but the Christmas music has not.

She still belts out her favorite Christmas tunes everyday. Still,

.

I guess we'll be super prepared for next Christmas season.

Christmas Joy - Part II

I already mentioned what a ball, little Ms. G had on Christmas day.

I just loved how the little things bring such big joy.

There's a life lesson in there somewhere.

Iain got some video of G on Christmas morning...

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Each year I hope to get a sweet Christmas picture of Gianna.

2008

2009

 and there were attempts at the 2010 shots...

...and then some more attempts....

Almost, but not quite...

And our best effort.

The Christmas Card pic attempts had just has many out-takes, but we ended up with this one:

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I mentioned in my last post that G got a Karaoke machine from Uncle Vinnie...

Here's my little performer in action...

Christmas Joy - Part I

Christmas was lovely, and simple and abundant.

We stayed home in the morning and opened gifts from Santa.

She got a little ambitious in gift opening - assuming ALL the gifts were hers.

After naptime, we made our way to Memaw and Pepaw's house.

Major Overload!!!!

Gianna got an awesome real keyboard that has tons of songs in it's memory bank and even can teach you how to play them.  And there's a jack for a microphone. (Yes, the phrase, "What was I thinnking?" has come up more than a few times.)

Speaking of microphones....

,,,one came with her Karaoke machine from Uncle Vinnie.  Oh my word ~ I can't wait to post videos of that!  She loves music SO much and has an amazing memory for lyrics.

I'm sure I'll be questioning my brilliant gift ideas in the future, but I know she'll have hours of fun with both gifts. 

My dad's comment was the best, "Are you sure you really want to amplify her?"

What can we say?  The girl's got a voice and some serious volume all on her own!

But she sure makes us smile!

Posing for the camera is not on her 'fun things to do' list.

The little red riding coat makes up for it, though. :)

Yep....she sure brings joy to OUR world.

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I found a cute little Santa app on my iPhone which I used to send a message to Gianna.

The "Natiffany"

Last year I really wanted to find a nativity set that Gianna could play with to help prepare her for Christmas.

I eyed that Fisher Price set and were surprised by how expensive they were.

This year I did a little online shopping and found an adorable set out of resin that was unbelievably reasonable and durable.

Aren't these guys just precious?

Gianna has spent HOURS playing with her "Na-tiffany" - and it has been touching (and hilarious) to watch.

The cast of characters include the usual Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, an angel, 3 kings and a shepherd ~

occasionally joined by Diego, the dollhouse family, a purple pony and even an extra Mary and Joseph.

One of my dearest friends started a beautiful tradition with Gianna.  Each year on the anniversary of Gianna's baptism, Lisa sends her a piece of this Fontanini nativity set.  She got Mary last year and Joseph this year. I keep these two out year round so Gianna is always reminded of these important role models.  I love that they're kid-proof as well as beautiful!

How special is that?  

Christmas Cookies

I promised myself that I would not make myself unnecessarily crazy this Advent and Christmas season.  In order to help honor that promise, I gave myself permission to make Christmas cookies AFTER Christmas day (technically still during the Christmas season though.)

 I may have completely passed over the tradition for this year, but my friend Michelle was adamant about continuing the tradition - especially since she would soon be leaving for THAILAND for a 27 month stint in the Peace Corp.  She and her daughter, Jessie (our beloved babysitter and friend), came and helped 'create' for a few hours.  Gianna couldn't have been more excited about this sweet endeavor.

I'm glad we had cookie time.

I'm just as glad that we waited.

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Wishing you and your family the merriest little Christmas.

Christmas Lights

We didn't decorate much outside our home this year.

Inside looks great - but the outside -- well, we opted for sanity instead.

A big part of the reason we didn't decorate is because NOBODY would EVER look this side of the street, since our amazing neighbors, 'The Griswold's' as we affectionately refer to them, completely DECK THE HALLS.

Santa's sleigh and all the reindeer, too.  It fun to look at from our home, and an added reason why we're not even going to try. :)

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After we celebrated my brother's birthday at my parents' home yesterday, we decided to take Gianna to look at Christmas lights. 

"Let's go find some more!" was the exclamation of the night.

We heard that there was one house in our town who had their light display set to music on a radio station.  We waited quite a while to get close enough to see the house, but it was well worth it to see Gianna's reaction. 

I wish we would have gotten to slow down a bit at the Nativty, but the drive-by was enough to excite Gianna.

The best light show came from the spactacular moon which happened to be rising at the time of our little light tour.  Gianna is quite obsessed with the moon, so she was pretty excited.

A Social Network Christmas

A Social Network Christmas from Igniter Media on Vimeo.

A Visit with Santa

The company Iain works for held their Children's Christmas Party last weekend.  Gianna was quite excited about the special guest. 

When the children were gathered near the stage and Santa was announced and entered from the back of the room, Gianna left the others and ran to meet him.  She was quite the little groupie.

When she had her turn to talk with him, the conversation quickly turned to her shoes.

(When she is excited to see someone, she always talks about her clothes and shoes.  Nervous chatter, I guess.)

I just love this next picture.

I would love to know what she is saying and what he is thinking. :)