Because it's been awhile...

First of all, Thanksgiving was wonderful. The food was delicious, the company was great, and Livia entertained herself during dinner by eating peach puffs. What more could you ask for??

Here is a picture of us, taken just as we were about to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.


Chase's oldest brother, Richie, and his wife, Whitnie, came up for the occasion, and it was so much fun to all be together.


My parents also happened to be in the bay area for Thanksgiving, visiting my grandparents. So we spent Friday morning with them and were able to fulfill the Self/Fitt family tradition of sitting on Santa's lap! My Uncle David has a full Santa suit costume, and doing this is a major highlight of every Thanksgiving.

I was worried that Livia would start to cry, but there were no tears! Here they are, checking each other out.

Even Chase got to sit on Santa's lap!

We met up with the Baldwin side of the family in San Francisco later that day, and took a jaunt down Lombard street.

Thanksgiving was over all too soon. It's a good thing Christmas follows so quickly! Chase put me on a tight budget for Christmas decorations this year, so I settled on a Christmas tree ($20 for a 6 ft. tree at Target!) and a wreath. I'm not a very crafty person, but since our budget was too small to buy an elaborate wreath, I went to Michael's and bought some ribbon and a $3.00 wreath. I thought it turned out rather well, and I used the leftover ribbon to make some bows to put on our Christmas tree, as it was looking a little sparse. Pretty thrifty, eh? In other news, Livia is becoming increasingly mischievous. The other day she managed to get into my diaper bag and pulled everything out.

I still haven't figured out how she managed this next one. One minute she was playing quietly on the floor, and the next she was going through our medical records!

Livia is also becoming increasingly mobile. She still doesn't crawl, but she's come up with her own way to get around. I usually have her sitting up on the floor, but if a toy rolls out of reach, she'll fall over onto her stomach, roll onto her back, and push herself along with her feet (probably rubbing half the hair off her head in the process). Then she'll roll back onto her stomach, and if she's still too far away, she'll flip right back to her back and scoot some more.

Here she is napping...she was facing the opposite direction when I laid her down. Apparently, the blanket stayed in one place and she just rotated underneath it.Ü