Brandenburdett: Christmas time with Paloma

Christmas means a lot of different things to different people. This is what our Christmas means:

Christmas time is family time
Even though we made a huuuuuge effort to decorate our house in Albuquerque, we headed north to Taos to spend a few quality days with Howard's family. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of Paloma in front of Claire's magnificent tree, so I guess we will have to leave that page blank in the Baby Book. It wasn't as snowy as last year, so there was no opportunity to build a snowman, and Semilla didn't get to chase snowballs. Still, we had a perfectly wonderful Christmas. I think that Paloma may have been everyone's favourite Christmas present...

Here is Aunt Cathy, getting in her share of cuddles. Who wouldn't want to cuddle such a cute baby?

Thanks to Megan for the wonderful cardigan that almost fits our teeny-weeny girl.

Grandmommy Claire certainly wanted to cuddle that cute baby! Here they are, snuggled up to keep warm (after something went awry with the furnace).

Aunt Cathy's rug made by Aunt Shari.

Of course, Daddypapa can't keep his hands off the cute baby either. He wants to hold and play and cuddle and kiss and play and cuddle and feed and play and cuddle all day long. Here he is, with Paloma dressed as a Christmas elf.

Thanks to Lorraine in Wickliffe for sending us this beautiful hat! (And a matching jumper.)

Christmas time is friend time

While we were in Taos, we took the opportunity to visit our good friends, Ben and Angela, and their sons, Enzo and Max. Max was born in July, and he seemed to be very interested in Paloma. It looks as though Paloma already has her prom date set! (Unless Alexander or James or Boo or one of the Davenborne twins gets in first.) It also looks as though she has a lot of growing to do in the next three months!

And thanks to Helen K for the wonderful new hat!

Enzo wasn't all that interested in the babies - he was much more interested in being a shark attack with a light sabre - a frightening prospect...

Note the yummy mummies in the background.

Christmas time is play time!!

As Enzo was keen to demonstrate, Christmas is all about playing. Paloma was pretty happy to oblige. Her playing is not quite as energetic as is Enzo's, but it's still a lot of fun. It's amazing how much joy watching Paloma laying on her mat and smiling brought to all of us.

Playmat made by Grandmommy Claire.

One of Howard's Christmas highlights was that we finally had toys again! Paloma slept through most of the unwrapping in the morning, and Daddypapa was more than happy to open all of her gifts on her behalf. Later on in the day, he encouraged her to play with some of her toys. I wonder who had more fun?