We had a fabulous, fun-filled week with lots of celebrations and friends and family. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house and Zoe got her first taste of the whole Christms present thing. She was a great little elf and handed each present to the appropriate present, gave my grandma all the ribbon fold neatly, and patiently waited as others opened their gifts. However, her favorite part of opening her own presents. She carefully ripped the paper, handing each small piece to Zak, and showed enthusiasm for each gift. She played with everyone for a bit before moving on to the next. Once all the presents were opened we had a delicious prime rib dinner and Zoe ate more then me!
We spent Christmas day at home and had a lovely, relaxing day. After coming downstairs, she was quite surprised to see some big presents left by Santa, but was in no hurry to rip into them. Rather, we all showered and had a nice breakfast. (It’s the only day of the year I make homemade cinnamon rolls, a process that has to start on the 23rd.) She truly enjoyed each gift, but about 2/3rds of the way through she opened the big one from Santa….the ridiculously large play kitchen. Then it was over. She immediately forgot about every other present under the tree and put all her attention into exploring the kitchen. After lunch and a nap, Zoe finally finished opening presents at about 4:30. There was certainly no time to make the gingerbread house, as we had planned on doing. We all enjoyed our traditional Christmas Nachos. At the end of the day we asked Zoe was her favorite present was and without hesitation she responded that she liked the orange that Santa left in the bottom of her stocking the most. She still continues to talk about that orange.
The day after Christmas and after an intense speech therapy lesson, we headed out to my parents to meet up with the Berry family and Margi and Michael, in from New Your City. It was great fun to spend some time catching up and seeing everyone. We then headed back our way and met up with college friends, the Johnsons and Pawlowskis for dinner. The Johnsons have a nearly five month old baby and Zoe was just adorable interacting with him. She was quite caring and very concerned when he cried. It really reassured us that she is going to be a fabulous big sister (in just 10 days!!!!)
Yesterday, was the end of the Christmas celebrations for us. We went to the Walnut Room in Macy’s in Chicago for lunch with my mom and dad, a tradition of over 24 years. As usual, it was fabulous and Zoe had a lot of fun exploring the F.A.O. Schwartz department.
Today, the tree came down and everything got put away until next year, when we’ll have another little one to celebrate with.
