Winter Holidays

Here is a long overdue look at baby Zoe's first Christmas and New Year's holidays! We bought a DVD camcorder and recorded Zoe's Christmas morning with it, and I've been waiting to post the pictures until I can get the pictures extracted from that video, so that I can post them too. But after we finally got the new computer and the software for video editing, the software doesn't work for our camcorder :( So I decided to go ahead and post some other pictures that we took during the holidays.

First, a few days before Christmas, Zoe went to visit Santa Claus and told him what all she wanted for her first Christmas. She had never seen a man with a beard that long, nevertheless she didn't get scared or cried (like we thought she would) and like many other little kids did!


And then of course came Christmas! Zoe loved the Christmas tree and all the ornaments, lights and the smell of fresh pine in our house. And when she woke up on Christmas morning she found a MOUNTAIN of presents she had to open, which was the funnest part! (This is the part we video recorded so no pictures yet) She loved opening the presents, but seemed more interested in the wrapping paper and the boxes than the presents themselves :) Needless to say she got oodles of new toys, books and clothes from her family and friends!

Then we went to visit her aunt Martha, where she got to open many more presents from the Ussery family and friends:
Her favorite present was the soft musical Sesame Street book from aunt Martha-each page makes a different instrument sound when you press it!

And here she is with aunt Martha:
After Kershaw, Zoe went to visit her Ritchie aunts and uncles. Here she is on "big" uncle Mike's lap (she also has a "little" uncle Mike:)

So Zoe's Christmas day was very long and eventful, the biggest day of her life since her birthday. Of course, as in addition to Christmas Day, it was also her big 6 MONTHS birthday!

Once Christmas rolled around the corner, it was time to celebrate another holiday- New Year!
Zoe hosted a little party at our house, with a few of her parents' friends: Roman and Lyubka (who are also expecting a little girl of their own!), and Leonard and Iko. She wore her new winter dress that she got for Christmas from Roman and Lyubka and entertained everyone:


But then she got tired of being dressed up, changed into her pajamas and stayed up with adults until 11:30 PM - she knew it was a special night!
And because she also understood mommy and daddy wanted to have a New Year's cheer and raise their champagne glasses, she went to bed at 11:45 and fell asleep at once- what a smart little girl!

This holiday season has been the most exciting one for our little family - it's been so much fun to celebrate with our baby Zoe and we look forward to celebrating with her for many more years to come!