Grandparents Galore

Maizey is one lucky gal. I never knew my grandfathers - both passed away before I was born - and of my two grandmothers, one died when I was very young. Grandma Mary was an amazing woman (and Mary Elizabeth's namesake) but after seeing my daughter delight in four grandparents, I can't help but feel I missed out on something.

On New Years Day, when Will and I were eating chicken wings and cringing through Django, Maizey was tromping around Kensington Farm with four of her favorite people.

(Trying on her tough face.)

Yet one more pesky farm animal in her life...

Will and I are thrilled that Maizey has four doting grandparents who get along smashingly. What luck!

Later that day...

Christmas morning, after gifts at home, the traditional gut-busting egg-bake and some yummy mimosas, we packed up and headed to the Spurgeon abode in Royal Oak.

With a cookie snack,

of course.

Once there, it was gifts galore, including a baby doll...

and a sweater...

And much, much more.

Lady got quite adept at the opening.

As you can see.

But was most taken with the singing, dancing tree.

Which is now hidden in a dark closet. Far far away.

(Note to singing tree maker: Please include volume control and a varied holiday carol repertoire on Model 2013. "Rockin' around the Christmas tree" becomes unbearably grating when belted repeatedly, and incessantly, from a flashing, swinging, plush green conifer.)

Gifts segwayed into food. 

And more food.

And . . . more food.

For Maizey, Christmas 2012 came to a close at 5 p.m. when she was lulled into a Jeep-induced sleep, waking only briefly for the car-to-crib transfer, and rising at 8 a.m. on Boxing Day - a full fifteen hours later.

Happy Holidays 2012.

Merry Mary

As you may have noticed, I, formerly "Enlarging Marge," took a bit of a holiday break. I didn't drive to Bloomfield Hills. I didn't do any freelance work. I didn't sew any dog collars. And I didn't do much blog posting. I did, however, take some photos. Vacation's over - on to posting. (And doing freelance work - I promise, Maria!)

After an exhaustingly fun Christmas Eve with "the boys," Maizey crashed, forgoing the cookies-for-Santa routine and sleeping until a leisurely 8:30 a.m. Will and I were up at 6 though, for set up. Following my wise parents' "one gift from Santa, one gift from Mom and Dad (+stockings)" rule, there was little prep. An Ikea easel and wooden train set... plus heaps of goodies from out-of-towners.

We both went up and collected her from her room, but I had the pleasure of carrying her downstairs and rounding the corner to the living room. Seeing the train set, glowing tree and easel, she immediately implored, "Down, Mama. Down!" then ran to the loot.

Customary Caldecott winning book from Grandma Betty...

"A Ball for Daisey." by Chris Raschka.

And fabulous cards from awesomely generous PaPa and BaBa.

 We were enamored with the gift. Maizey the the photo inside.

And so it went...

  Merry, Mary indeed. 

It was a marvelous morning.

And we only opened about half of the presents. Lady got a titch overwhelmed so we decided to stretch out the fun and opened gifts for the remaining week.

Twas the night before

All iced up

I can hardly believe Christmas has come and gone, and that a week ago I was rushing around Ikea and Target, subjecting poor crowd-averse Miss Maizey to my office holiday potluck, welcoming Will home before 5 p.m., and icing those Betty-mixed sugar cookies...

We quickly found out that our little Picasso would rather create than decorate. And I realized why my mom is the world's fastest cookie decorator. With little kids to cater to, you don't have time to make rainbow zebras. Unless you're a dad.

The jolly Joker at her finest.

More merry pics to come...

Cheers! It's Christmas Eve!

May visions of sugar plums dance in your heads.

(Special love to my U.P. family - missing you this Christmas eve. Ring in Wigilia with an extra serving of cabbage pierogi + two beano for me...)