Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely and low-key Christmas this year. We spent Christmas eve having dinner at a friend's house and this morning we woke up to see that Santa had arrived. On Christmas Eve some friends gave Claire some darling Santa pajamas, which she absolutely loved. When we put them on her before bed, she kept pointing at the Santas saying, "Seenta, Seenta". She loved them and she spent the morning in them too!


Claire certainly raked in the goodies. Santa brought her a toddler sized table and chairs as well as a bunch of puzzles and a play purse, complete with cell phone, keys, mirror and lipstick.



From her adoring family members she got an Elmo live, a bunch of Elmo DVDs, books, toys and a giant moose that is as big as she is.


Here is Claire walking around with her moose and her pink play cell phone wearing the lion slippers Santa brought her.


Mommy's friend Jessie sent us matching sweatshirts! How fun! After all, aren't mothers and daughters supposed to dress alike?? I'll go with it as long as I can...


After a long morning of playing and opening presents, Claire definitely needed a little rest!

Let there be light!

We celebrated Hanukkah last week by lighting the menorah and having a nice dinner. Claire enjoyed watching Daddy light the candles.

Breakfast with Santa

It's official. Claire loves Santa. It does help that I've been prepping her by reading Santa books and showing her Barney's Night Before Christmas and talking to her about Santa. Last weekend's Santa arrival was a great help in getting her warmed up to the big guy. I really wanted to be able to get some good pictures of her with him without her screaming and it looks like she bought it!


This morning we went to have breakfast with Santa at one of the bases. We went with our friends Sarah, David and their daughter Sadie. As soon as Santa walked in, Claire walked right up to him to give him a hug. After he greeted some of the kids, he went to sit down and she beelined for him and got up in his lap again. When it was her turn to get a gift and a candy cane, she went right up and happily sat in his lap. It was very cute. She doesn't really make the association with presents and Santa yet, though, but she does like the big guy in red.

The Oranges are Ripe!

Ever since we moved in, Andy and I have been waiting for the oranges on our seven orange trees (three naval and four clementines) to be ripe and they are now ready. The clementines are certainly ready, but I think the navals have a little while to go still. In any case, we will soon be swimming in oranges. I've already started making myself OJ in the mornings, but I'm worried I soon won't be able to keep up.


Claire, who has always been passionate about fruit, loves the oranges. On most mornings there are one or two that have fallen and she loves to pick them up, but there are also a few of the clementines that she can reach an pick herself. She's gotten to the point where she doesn't even want to wait for me to peel it for her, she'll just peel it herself. We were out there on Friday afternoon and she was having a great time picking and eating the oranges.

Claire Meets Santa

Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived today in style on the fire trucks on the base.


After their grand entrance, while passing out candy to the kids, they came into the base mall to do a little meet and greet.



I was worried that Claire would be freaked out by the scary guy in the big red suit, but she did really well... I think at first she was most interested in the candy.


Later, Santa moved to his proper picture taking station and she sat on his lap like a champ. My pictures turned out blurry, but hopefully the professional ones turned out better. I'll be able to check on them later this week.

Hands in Pockets

Claire has discovered her pockets!

We were hanging out with my friend Kara today and she kept putting stuff in the pockets of Claire's track suit for her to find. Later in the day, I noticed that she was putting her hands in her pockets and loved it! She was so cute running around saying, "hands, hands!"

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Italy. A few friends came over to share dinner with us and later that night, Scarlett flew in for a quick visit.

She was literally only here for two full days and left on Sunday morning, but we had a blast. On Friday we went to downtown Naples and took the big red bus tour and went shopping. On Saturday, we went to Pompeii. Andy watched Claire, so she and I could run around and have some good "girl" time.

On Sunday morning, both she and Andy drove to the airport. Scarlett flew back to Seattle and Andy went to the states for 1212... oh, I mean for "important business."

So, it's just me and the Claire Bear for three weeks....