"Yots a Yights"

Auntie Annie's little "isms" from growing up are forever remembered between Mom, Dad, big brother and big sister... when Annie was growing up she used to always get super excited around the holidays when all of the Christmas lights went up and would run around saying "Yots a Yights, Yots a Yights" (Lots of Lights)

So while our current space - or rather our furniture taking over our current space doesn't really lend well to a large tree (nothing like our 16 ft tree in Colorado!) our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree atop the side table was adorned with a string of lights, some favorite Christmas ornaments and Claire's first two ornaments (from Grandma Z and her friend Barbara Giles - Thank you!)

So I was left with the dilemma of what to do with the 20 other strings of lights left over from that Colorado Christmas. With some polish pride I decorated the shrubs and put out a few other lawn decorations. Claire's first Christmas.

Claire has continued to explore eating. She really loves to feed herself and for the first part of meal time does a great job of just getting the food to her mouth. But after a bit it becomes a time of exploration - she gets a bath after dinner anyway.. so I figured why not let her go ahead and explore.
This is mom's attempt to get a picture of the two big teeth Claire has cut in. The first appeared at around 4 and a half months and are not very prominent (bottom two center teeth) they came in at exactly the same time. You can't see them here - but it was fun to try - Claire was a real trooper.
Claire and I had a fun Saturday morning playing dress up (or rather trying on a bunch of her clothes to see what still fit - this outfit is still a bit large - but she loved how soft it was and the shoes are super cute! I'm excited for all of the clothing and shoe adventures to come.

We had a great weekend - a good mixture of family and friends time. We're still on the hunt for a house and we toured a house I had been keeping an eye on with our amazing real estate agent (email me if you need a referral!) - and we loved it! It would be so exciting to call it home for a while. It exceeded our expectations in so many ways but had a few drawbacks as well (namely the 47 stairs to get to the front door!) but it would be an adventure! and we are always looking for one.

Big decisions to make. We are excited for what the new year may bring. One day at a time.