Christmas 2011

Whomever said December birthdays are the pits failed to consider how much brighter it can make Christmas!  Celebrating her own birthday just over a week before gave Emmy such incredible perspective on the importance of Jesus' birthday celebration!  In the days leading up, we kept busy with lots of fun Christmas activities (tree-trimming, decorating Rice Krispie houses, baking cookies, touring nearby neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights, hot chocolate and the drive-through nativity at a local church, Christmas shopping and crafts) all of which gave way to fantastic conversations about the reason for the season.  Needless to say, Emmy knew that Jesus has the biggest birthday party of all and was super amped for the holiday!

Being unable to travel this year given Hannah's rapidly approaching due date made for an easy decision as to where we'd spend Christmas.  With family traveling in for or after Hannah's birth (not to mention Nick's parents' and brothers' trip to Brazil for Ben and Eliana's wedding,) we knew it would be a low-key holiday with just the three of us.  It was no-stress and jam-packed with playtime in our pajamas!  We loved every second and couldn't have asked for more!

Emmy received a very special video message from Santa on Christmas Eve, which confirmed her place on the "nice" list.  She hung onto his every word and confirmed that she was a good girl with lots of nods and a big, "yeah!"  We must've watched the message nearly a dozen times. :)  We changed out of our jammies in time for the Christmas Eve service at church, where we got an incredible reminder that God so loved the world that He sent His only son to pay for our sins.  What gift could top that!?  Just when it seemed that the service couldn't get any better, we were so lucky to run into so many of our wonderful friends!  Such a special way to kick off the night!

We raced home so that I could put the finishing touches on our Christmas Eve dinner.  The menu (which held great tradition from my mom's side of the family) included: a green salad, cioppino, fettucine with white truffle butter sauce, and a fruit and jello mold.  Emmy had some spaghetti, or as she likes to call it, "pastas."  After dinner, Emmy opened up the first Christmas gift, new jammies for everyone and Fancy Nancy's "Splediferous Christmas!"  Not long after that, we snuggled in to read a Christmas classic, "The Polar Express."  All the while, Emmy gripped her jingle bell.

The next morning, Emmy's gift to us was the ability to sleep in...until 9!!! That NEVER happens!!  We were shocked when we saw the time!  After her late wake up, we hurried into her room to retrieve her from her crib.  I think Nick and I were even more excited than she was for all the fun that was to come, perhaps because she'd forgotten what day it was.  When we asked her who had come to our house while she was sleeping, she said expectantly, "Annie and KK (Andy and Clairey)?"  We let her down gently by reminding her that Santa had come instead.  Once she saw all the presents under the tree (and ate Santa's cookie crumbs), she was back in the Christmas groove!  Emmy was responsible for unwrapping each and every gift that was under the tree this year, no matter if it was for her or not.  She became pretty overwhelmed by the windfall of fun toys and it wasn't until later in the afternoon, after breaking in her new snow boots from Mimi and Papa outside, that she settled down enough to start enjoying all of her new loot.  We lucked out with a phone call from Nick's Brazil-bound family and Skype calls with Mimi, Papa and Jamie as well as the Sacksteder crew.  One of my favorite memories of the day was Emmy and Clairey's virtual jam-session, where Clairey sang jingle bells and Emmy offered the beat-box on her new keyboard, from their respective living rooms.

We had the traditional Odell family brunch and Christmas Day roast for dinner.  We finished up the day with a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" cheesecake (Nick's favorite.)  Not once did any of us get out of our pajamas the entire day...It was glorious!!

Making Rice Krispie "houses."  Emmy ate all of her allotted candy instead of affixing it to her house.  Surprise, surprise...:-P 

All dressed up for the Christmas Eve service at church!

This is what I get when I tell her to "smile big."

Or this.

Finally, a natural smile. :)

My loves.

Such a pretty pair. :)

Emmy was very excited about her new coat.

Nearly killed myself in heels.  Not my best plan ever.

The first gift of Christmas: Jammies for everyone and Fancy Nancy's "Splendiferous Christmas!"

Reading "The Polar Express" before bed while Emmy clings onto her jingle bell.

The cookies Emmy carefully selected for Santa.

Santa arrived!!

Lookin' good! I don't think she could quite see with them on, though, because she got up about an inch away from my face saying "Yook, Mama!"

It's hard work unwrapping every single gift under the tree!

Modeling the apron I made her, so grateful it fit!

Breaking in her snow boots from Mimi and Papa.  She ran laps around the backyard enjoying the gorgeous weather. 

"Colorin' piture" on the awesome easel from Auntie Kristi, Uncle JP, "Annie," "KK," and Baby Jacob.

Loving the ladybug pillow pet from "Jamie."  Apparently, they are on a first name basis now, he's lost his "Uncle" title. :-P  

Just Three Words...

Lately, Emmy has been emulating my compulsive nature and has glommed onto a few different activities.  Playing with Legos is one and watching past birthday videos is another.   She calls them "Happy Burbday to you," and will grab my hand to pull me to the computer so that I can restart them over and over again (without regard to any other project that I might be engrossed in.)  It's almost as if she knew her big day was right around the corner and felt the need to properly prepare.

Yesterday, we coordinated with Emmy's wonderful teachers to bring cupcakes for snack and to sing Emmy her favorite song!  Nick and I had to chuckle at Emmy's very reserved demeanor during her school birthday celebration.  Of course she smiles broadly while watching the video recap. :)

This morning, Emmy emerged from her bedroom to find some fun birthday decorations hanging in the kitchen and a brand new birthday video to watch.  She was positively tickled.  After playing with her food (she requested pumpkin bread and cheesy eggs for breakfast,) we went to the store to purchase some baking ingredients and a very special balloon to honor the day!  Then, we went to Papa Murphy's to get our pepperoni and olive pizza for dinner, one of her personal favorites.  Emmy boasted her birthday girl status to the kind workers at our favorite pizza joint via her balloon.  It proved to be a wise move on her part, as she was gifted a snack on two pepperonis and two olives, one for each year of life!

After a leisurely nap, Nick (who was able to leave work a bit early today) and I whisked our girl to Nashville for a "special surprise."  Not quite an hour later, a very overwhelmed little Emmy girl found herself at the Build-A-Bear factory!  After a great deal of running around in circles, Emmy fixed her attention on a doggy with roller skates.  Nick joked with the incredibly kind woman helping us that Emmy had expensive taste, to which she agreed by saying it was the most pricey option in the store.  Lucky for us I printed off a coupon!  Shortly thereafter, Abby Horn, the border collie on roller skates was born!  It was so much fun to see an excited Emmy pulling her new doggie through the mall.

We raced home to have our pizza and cupcakes and to open Emmy's presents.  After a reluctant bath time (Emmy told Nick to turn the water off so she could continue playing with her new blocks,) we finished up our day with "Happy Birthday to You" by Dr. Seuss and "On the Night That You Were Born" by Nancy Tillman.  A very sleepy and very content Emmy laid her head down to rest just before nine o'clock tonight.  What a special day it was for such a special little girl.

Shy Emmy shows up at school.

The friends that Emmy jumps out of bed to go play with on school days.

A rare family portrait!

The Birthday Girl getting VIP treatment at the Build-A-Bear Factory!

Stuffing Abby the Dog!

Bathing Abby!

Abby up on her roller skates!

The sweet saleswoman assured Nick that daughters get more expensive with age.

Abby rode home in Emmy's lap.

How can I ever doubt my faith after witnessing such a miracle as the birth and life of my sweet Emmy girl?

Just Three Words...

DECKING THE HALLS

Watching the "Elf on the Shelf" movie while adorning our faux tree with ornaments.

Dada's little "helper."

Emmy hangs the inaugural ornament onto the string of lights.

Emmy's tree and nativity in her play room.  Her favorite part was putting on the "ites" (lights).

When searching for all the components of the Little People nativity, I found baby Jesus tucked into Emmy's doll bunkbed.  So very thoughtful.

Henry, our Elf on a Shelf.  Emmy doesn't understand the concept other than that Henry is Santa's friend who shows up in (periodically) different places in our house.  Good thing we have another year or so to master the drill before she notices that he hasn't moved for a few days.

Completely unrelated to holiday tree-trimming: I found some of Emmy's babies in time-out a few days ago.  She was wagging her finger at them firmly saying, "SIT THERE! TIME OUT!"  When I asked her what they did wrong, she told me, "HIT!"  Hmmm....

35 weeks and some change

Please excuse the dark circles, not even photoshop could minimize them...I am starting to feel the home stretch of this pregnancy; and it doesn't help that my nasty barking cough has kept me up at night for the last couple of weeks.  I have been moving around pretty easily, mostly because Emmy doesn't give me a choice.  There definitely have been times that I have wondered how Hannah is fairing with the crazy contortions I've managed in order to wrangle my wily 2 year old.  I think I'm beginning to experience payback for her discomfort, though, as I found myself doing a semi-waddle a couple of days ago.  So attractive.  Hannah has been fairly active which usually elicits some good Braxton-Hicks contractions (but then so does chasing Emmy,) none have been anything intense enough to write home about.  I feel so much more at peace with Hannah's impending delivery than I did with Emmy at this point in the game.  I'm in no rush for her to come, because I know that when she does, our world will change forever (in the most wonderful way possible, of course. ;)  For now, I am just savoring these last few weeks being our family of 5. :)

Impromptu California Trip

Because the Nick Horns wont be able to participate in the Brazilian nuptials of Ben and Eliana on December 30th; my husband had been scheming to find a way to visit with his little brother before his big day.  Work commitments dictated that he travel to the west coast the second weekend in December.  As luck would have it, a mutual high school friend, who now teaches English at our alma mater, invited Nick to speak to several Junior and Senior classes about his military experience in the same time frame.  Nick was honored that she asked, and it was of high priority that he make it happen.  He had also hoped to give my weary prego body a break by taking Emmy with him.  However, after much back and forth, we determined that his ambitious trip to travel with our girl was far too complex to be realistic.  

That was until I was overcome with a great urge to be with him for his presentation.  I've never missed a single "Nick speaking engagement" since he gave a recruitment talk in the Monte Vista Career Center when I was a senior in high school.  I just always show up, and I hated to break my record now.  So, I made a pact with myself that if there were reasonable plane tickets to be had, just a week out from our intended departure, then it was a sign that God was telling me to go.  It doesn't matter if you're eight and a half months pregnant and traveling with a busy two year old; God tells you to do something, you do it.

Well, the plane tickets to San Francisco were less expensive than I've seen them in a long time and the flight times were ideal.  Thank you, Lord, for providing me with clear signs!  Seven days later (after seven nightly prayers for a smooth travel day,) Nick deposited Emmy and I at the security gate at Nashville International, with the promise to meet us in California after work the following day.  Emmy did incredibly well on our first flight to Dallas and fairly well, in spite of being nap deprived, on our second.  Our only minor snafu was my ineptitude at attaching the Baby-GoGo carseat wheel adapter at the Dallas airport.  I owe a great deal of credit to the monkey "backpack" leash that kept Emmy from running away from me as I wrestled that the car seat contraption on the floor.  We were both beyond thrilled to see Papa drive up to retrieve us from SFO, just shy of eight hours after leaving Nashville.

Emmy benefited greatly from our last minute trip with tons of love from both sets of grandparents and all of her uncles (and soon-to-be Auntie Eliana!)  Nick did an exceptional job on his presentation, and had me in tears at all three of his packed-house talks.  It was an incredible "this is your life" moment, and it was very obvious that there was no other place that I was meant to be that day.  

Nick spent the remaining couple of days in California enjoying some quality time with Emmy and his family.  He got to watch the (very disappointing) Army vs. Navy football game at a bar in San Francisco with two of his favorite West Point classmates, RJ and Kerrie.  He also had a fun (but tame) night on the town to celebrate Ben's dwindling days of bachelorhood.  Emmy had fun playing with her daddy & uncles old toys, acquainting and reacquainting herself with Grammy's froggie yard ornaments, meeting some of the Horn's family friends, playing Poppy's keyboard, and chasing a completely disinterested Goliath the cat.  Goliath clearly knows how very smothering her love can be for all animal life forms.

I cherished my child-free time at home with my family (and therefore many an uninterrupted conversation,) as well as some California Christmas shopping.  I got jealous of my pre-Tennessee shopping self all over again as I perused a dozen stores that can't be found in a hundred-mile radius of Clarksville.  I did practice some self-control and stuck to my list, however.  I can be tempted, but my frugal nature always prevails.  After Nick left for the business part of his trip, Emmy returned to receive some Odell family TLC.  We went to the park, made some sugar cookies, oogled at Mimi's Christmas deer, built many lego towers and cuddled during some classic clay-mation Christmas flicks.  The only thing that got Emmy up and ready to go to the airport Monday morning was the assurance that she would get to go see her friends at school in Tennessee the following day.

The flight home was not nearly as smooth as our previous travel experience.  Our initial flight was delayed by an hour, which left us meandering (more like playing chase) around Terminal Two for two excruciatingly long hours.  Emmy was quick to throw a tantrum because we were heading up on nap time, and had sticky fingers in the convenience store (thus resulting in a purchase of an opened package of sugar-coated gummy worms.)  Even though we were scheduled to stop in Los Angeles, we lucked out by avoiding a plane change.  We did our best to get Emmy's wiggles out on the plane, in hopes of a good long nap on the second leg.  Unfortunately for my tired self, we had an excessively loud flight attendant that woke Emmy up after just 15 minutes of sleep.  Needless to say, the rest of the remaining four hours of air travel weren't pretty.  After gathering our suitcase, finding our car at the last shuttle stop (thanks, Babe!) we were homeward-bound.  Frazzled as all get out, I made a firm pact with myself in the car not to travel at nearly nine months pregnant again; that is, unless God has other plans for me.  He always knows best. :)

Papa made many cold trips outside to admire Mimi's deer with Emmy girl....

...Until he was successful in convincing her to look at them from the front window.  She would come barreling into the main living room to grab whomever's hand was nearest to her to go and "see deer" from the front room.

Mimi's home from work!  Darn blurry picture!

Making Christmas cookies!

She got tired of the cookie cutters and preferred to form her cookies on the sliding glass door.

Emmy's final product!  Unfortunately, Zoe the beagle got to enjoy the fruits of her labor. :-/

Emmy's early birthday present! She opened it on the airplane and practiced her photography skills on unsuspecting passengers.

Nick's standing O. :)

Lots of appreciative handshakes.

Unco-Jamie taught Emmy how to walk on the ceiling.  

The whole Horn family in one place! 

(The soon-to-be Eliana Horn, Ben, yours truly, Emmy, Nick, Grammy, Grant and Poppy)