Christmas: Casa de Stoffan

This year for Christmas Eve we celebrated at my parents house. The place was swarming with kids and I think that's just how the Stoffans like it. It was also swarming with doggies. This picture only has about a third of the canine friends who shared the holiday with us.

Before Dinner Uncle Drew took the girls out to feed the horse and mini donkey. If you want to know the name of the donkey ask any member of the family. They'll have a different, but equally amazing answer. I believe Addison calls him Bezoar and Aubrie calls him Eeyore. Drew prefers "DaaaawnKEY" , which I am also partial too.

Lucky for us the Hollans are part of the family as well and join us every year. Here Julia is with her Uncle Marcus, an unofficial "Godfather". Besides looking like a legit Godfather he is also the man responsible for marrying Pete and I.

 

Aubrie and Julia with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Here's some of the rest of the group:

I've already sent this picture into some producers here in Hollywood looking for a sexy mom. Obviously Kassie is nailing it.

This one is pretty adorable.

                                  As is this one.

My brother Nick is such a sweet Uncle. WARNING: If you are under the age of 10 stop reading here. For each of the baby's first Christmas he makes a toy chest for them from Santa. They are amazing. You can't see much detail here but they are really well done and will be with the kids forever. I don't know how he finds the time (or his wife Kassie finds the time for everything else while he's doing this). All of his nieces and nephews are insanely lucky to have him.

All around it was a good time.

Christmas: Visiting Nana, Nanu, & Aunt Jennie

The Sunday before Christmas Bert and I drove down with the babies to visit our grandparents and aunt. And if you haven't driven 3 hours each way with a 3 and 8 month old I recommend it. It's great training for building nerves of steel, something that will come in useful if Bert and I ever want to be Spies. Nothing can break us now.

On a side note, if you do have to drive with 2 babies of different ages and whims I recommend being the driver...the passenger will do all of the baby handling while you turn the radio up (THANKS BERT!).

But it was a GREAT visit. Unfortunately we couldn't stay very long and we were really sad to leave. We're glad we got to see Nana, Nanu, and Aunt Jennie. And lucky for us, we also caught Gayla there too (sadly I didn't snap a picture...next time!).

             Nana wrangled Julia & Cole like an old pro,



                                                               
                                                                                       Nanu made Julia giggle like crazy,

                        Auntie Jennie gave some kisses,

                                              Cole told Nana some funny stories,

 
we saw some very handsome men (Aren't they cuties?),




                           Auntie Bert forgave Julia for the awful car ride,

                  

 Serena adjusted to all of the babies taking over the house,

 And as usual, Cole brought cute to an all new level...

  ...and Julia slept through a lot of it.


What a great visit!

Guess whose 3 months old?

Julia is already three months-old! And I'm only a couple weeks late getting the pictures up...

The other day we had one of Pete's co-interns over for dinner and they both needed proof that she wasn't in the 100% percentile for weight. How rude. (For the record, she was almost exactly 50th for weight and height at her 2 month appointment.) But...to be fair, she has the chins and thighs of a six month old.

Getting a 3 month old to stay still long enough for a picture can be pretty tricky. She's also so pale that it's hard to find an aperture setting that let's in the right amount of light so that 1) you can see her, 2) she's not a blur, and 3) she doesn't look like a ghost. Regardless, she's pretty cute!

At 3 months,
- Julia loves her playmat and likes tugging on all the toys dangling from it.
- She eats ALL the time. And when she's not eating, she's STARVING.
- Her favorite toys are a rattle telephone that she inherited from her Cousin Colin and a pink ball Auntie Britany bought her that she  can grab & rattle. She is constantly trying to eat both of these (see above).
- She chatters all day long. At me, her Dad, her toys, family and occasionally at Chewy (when she notices he's there).
- And her mom and dad wish she would grow a little slower. She's going to be 30 before we know it.

Good Neighbors and Jammin with an infant & chihuahua

This morning while Julia and I were walking Chewy I was running through the list of things I wanted to get done before heading to Northern California for the Holidays.

I had been putting off making jam because:

1. It had kind of "hot" earlier this week (85 and sunny...aren't we spoiled?) New England friends please don't be mad at me. I miss you but I am also happy to not be experiencing another New England winter right now.
2. I was waiting for a time when Pete was free to watch our precious little daughter
3. And I needed lemons

As I walked around the neighborhood with yards containing citrus trees I was thinking how nice it would be if someone just handed me a few lemons so I wouldn't have to go to the store. And then... a Christmas miracle happened (if we use the term miracle loosely).  As we rounded the corner this woman came out of her house, waved at us, and yelled a greeting. She then stopped me and insisted on giving me a bag of lemons. Now she could have seen me longingly looking at the lemons in the neighborhood, been softened by Julia's angelic looks (people are always nice to me now that I have a baby) OR it could have been a coincidence she already had lemons picked and was just a nice person. Either way it was very generous and not a common occurrence in Hollywood.

So I decided it was fate and to take a risk making jam with Julia. And I'll tell you, it was no surprise she was a perfect angel. Pete and I really got lucky. 
 

Some of the lemons generously provided by a nice neighbor

My helpful crew (mostly cheering squad)

 

Other ingredients donated for this cause were some delicious summer peaches from my parent's tree

And our finished products:

         Christmas Jam                          Blueberry Peach Spice Jam

Julia was exhausted afterwards and needed to take a nap.