So This is Christmas

Millie had a wonderful Christmas in St. Louis. She got to experience many things: taking a town car to the airport, flying on a plane, traveling to a different time zone, suburban St. Louis, urban St. Louis, meeting her uncles, bonding with her Auntie LoLo at 5:00 in the morning, driving through central Illinois, a Ross gathering at Great-Grandma's house, eating in cafes and fancy restaurants, riding in German cars, baking Christmas cookies, meeting her friends Bevin, Robert and Cal, meeting lots of great aunts and uncles and second cousins, dancing on tables, opening presents, her first Christmas stocking, singing Christmas songs with mommy, teaching Auntie LoLo mommy's silly Millie songs :), and being well-loved by everyone around her all day every day (not spoiled though :)!). Here are some of the highlights...

Millie dancing on the table with Auntie LoLo Christmas day :)

More videos to come....

edited 12/30/07 -- well, I was going to load more videos, but brilliant techie that I am I accidently erased them all and can't seem to find them to restore them. Sigh...

We are all so happy that we got the chance to go to St. Louis for the holiday. Millie has a very special aunt and uncles. It was a very special time for the whole family. There were tough moments, but overall it was a week filled with a lot of laughter, smiles, stories of the old days and the making of many new memories. It's hard to pick out a "best" moment of the week -- it was all great. We had fun hanging out with Auntie LoLo, Uncle Brandon and Uncle Christian, we enjoyed seeing the extended family in Decatur and giving Millie a chance to meet her great-grandma, baking cookies is always a good time, Christmas Day is always a winner -- lots of presents :) -- and our dinner out this year was above and beyond anything any of us has ever experienced. Millie took a liking to both of her uncles and of course enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa again -- she spent a lot of time entertaining everyone with her budding vocabulary (oohs, aaahs, and a couple of coos), her lower body strength, and her infectious smile.

Millie traveled well back to Connecticut with only one slight upset when Scott changed her in the bathroom on the plane between Chicago and White Plains. Mommy and Daddy did pretty well too considering we were working on 3 1/2 hours of sleep! (Mommy didn't consider the length of the Annual Ross Family Dinner Out when she told Auntie to book an early morning flight home on Thursday...ooops). We made it home without any travel glitches and enjoyed a nice long family nap shortly after we walked in the door (even daddy slept for 2 hours!!). We've spent the past couple of days catching up and returning to "real" life. Daddy had to go to work on Friday, but ended up calling it a half day due to how slow things were at work. Mommy and daddy are enjoying the extended holiday and the ability to spend a lot of time as a family. We are looking forward to ringing in the new year with old friends (Christian) and new friends (hopefully friends from our newborn group). 2007 was an amazing year -- perhaps topping even the big '04 -- and 2008 promises to be even more exciting as we get to watch our little girl grow up. It's going to be bittersweet to lose these days of Millie as an infant...