First Birthday, December 24

We had a very small 1st birthday party for Jocelyn on Christmas Eve. Although we plan to have a bigger "half birthday" celebration for her on June 24th every year (so that she doesn't feel her birthday and Christmas presents are getting merged) and include many more family and friends, since we were hosting a little gathering on Christmas Eve we decided to have a small b-day celebration before kicking off the holiday festivities. A very generous friend who works at the coffee shop down the street made an absolutely beautiful cake shaped like a Barbie doll in a flowing gown (thank you again Sue!). Jocelyn got her first taste of cake, and the early returns were very positive!

Admiring the gorgeous cake (she is eating a chunk from the doll's back side so that we could get a shot of the cake intact in the picture).

Showing off her Christmas outfit which Grammy bought for the holiday (thank you Grammy!) and waiting for her next piece of cake to be cut.

Thanks to Grammy bringing her to reading hours a few times a week, Jocelyn loves books. When we handed her one of her birthday cards she started flipping through like it was a little booklet. A good omen!

The Christmas Photo

Those of you with children know that taking the photo for the family Christmas card can be a stressful experience. You want the picture to be *just right* and inevitably the little one, who may have been an absolute angel just before getting dressed up in the cute holiday dress bought for the occasion, suddenly turns into Little Miss Crankypants and wants to crawl around rather than sit in front of the tree. You are doing your darnedest to keep the camera trained on her, waiting to capture even a hint of a smile, and Momma is in your ear yelling to "just keep shooting, there's bound to be a good one in there." (I'm sure that's exactly how Ansel Adams approached every shot.) Then the cats decide to go for the ornaments and knock down a few presents, further distracting the little one and upsetting the perfect scene Momma had laid out in front of the tree. Good times.

Luckily we recovered by remembering that, when the weather was warmer and we used to take Jocelyn on the swings at the playground, the one thing that would always make her smile and laugh was Momma doing funny walks in front of us (think Monty Python) while Jocelyn swung in my lap. These shots were taken while Jocelyn was watching her do something that I would liken to a monkey trying to feed while jumping on a pogo stick. Whatever it takes, baby!

Wellesley Christmas Stroll

Jocelyn, Grammie, Aunt Marie, Julia, Timmy and I decided to get into the holiday spirit last week by experiencing the stroll through Wellesley Center. Carolers, musicians, and Santa were there to greet us. Since Jocelyn would not sit on Santa's lap without crying, I tried to have her sit next to Santa in her stroller. That was unsuccessful as well until I knelt beside her and gave her the bink to keep her from crying:-) Still a cute shot though! Thanks Marie!

And this was Jocelyn patiently waiting while we enjoyed the holiday sales!