Susannah's First Family Christmas

Sorry for the looong hiatus.    We are back home in sunny San Diego after spending a couple of weeks with family.    It was a wonderful visit full of fun memories with family and friends.   Our flight to Atlanta was uneventful.   Susannah did great, despite having her first ear infection.   Per doctor's orders, we loaded her up with benadryl and ibu profin so she slept during take off.   And after she woke up, she was pretty content on our laps and in the floor.

We spent the first half of our visit in Knoxville Tennessee at Grammy's house.   The big family event, though, took place at Grandmama's (Susannah's great grandmother).   We had delicious food and lots of fun.

 Susannah is the only great-grandchild, so she was the center of all the attention.    

Susannah was a little overwhelmed by all the attention, but she loved the Christmas tree and presents.  

"I want to open the big one!"

"Oh, what a pretty ornament!"

"So beautiful!"

 We also spent an evening with my oldest friends, Lyndsey and Amy.   Their daughters are Susannah's age and we are always so excited to get them together.  

Lyndsey and Ellie were great dinner hostesses.   

The girls had a great time playing together, even if they wouldn't stay still enough for a good picture.

And this was just cocktail hour......the actual dinner was even more beautiful and delicious!

The girls practiced their coloring skills in Ellie's nursery.

Already sharing.....what sweet friends!

The best group photo we could manage.    

Adorable Scarlett was so well behaved during dinner. 

Another failed attempt at a group shot of the girls.  

We pulled out our last stop for a group photo with these marshmallows.   While we did get the girls to  face the same general direction, they all have chipmunk cheeks full. 

"How many do you think we can fit into our mouth's at one time?"  

 Our last day in Knoxville, Santa came to visit Susannah at Grammy's house.  

Here she is opening her first stocking.  

She loved her new books and socks.

Crazy Christmas morning hair!

After opening all our presents, we headed back over to Grandmama's for one last dinner of her delicious cooking.
  

Susannah really warmed up to her Grandmama.....and this stuffed cat that was mine when I was a little girl.

Susannah has so much fun that night playing with Grandmama and Grammy.

Grandmama even gave her her very first piano lesson.  

Our time in Knoxville was such a blessing.   Thanks to Grammy for being such a great host.   We are already looking forward to our next visit!   

Christmas in Coronado

It is officially Christmas time here in Coronado.   We have had so much family Christmas fun lately, so I wanted to record some of the memories here on the blog.   We put out our decorations a couple of weeks ago.   We decided against doing a tree this year, but here a a few photos of the things we did put out .  

Here is our handcarved nativity from Madagascar that Grammy bought for us at the Strasbourg Christmas market a few years ago.   Is it somehow sacreligious to have baby Jesus on a cable box?   It is just the only place high enough to be protected from curious toddler hands.  

Here are our stockings hanging from our mantel.   We still haven't used the fireplace, but I'm so thankful to have a place to hang the stockings.

 Peter strung some lights around the living room.  

And we hung our silver bells that Sarah Beth gives us every year at Christmas.   I just love these.    

We decided to let Susannah have her two Christmas presents from us early.   We know she doesn't understand, so we thought, why not let her have them now?   Lord knows, she will be getting enough from all the grandparents on the real Christmas morning.  

Pat the Bunny is her favorite book, but she has "read" it so many times, it is falling apart.    So Santa brought her a new shiny one.   

He also bought her this little purse.   Her friend Leyton has one and Susanhan LOVES it.   It comes with a lipstick, a mirror, keys, and some play money.   Here she is checking herself out in the mirror.  

And eating her lipstick.

Thanks Santa!!   I love my purse!!

 We also went to the Coronado Christmas parade.   Susannah loved looking at all the floats and bands that came by.

The Westie rescue mission of San Diego walked in the parade    Here are all the Westies donning their Christmas outfits.  

Susannah was wide-eyed the whole time.  

And here is the greyhound rescue organization.   This was awesome because all the greyhounds had lights on their outfits.   (Yes, the parade did have participants of the human variety.   We just didn't feel the need to take pictures of these.)

The grand finale was Santa on the fire engine.   

Like I mentioned in the last post, Susannah was NOT a fan.   

It has been pretty chilly here, so Susannah has been able to dress in her warm and cozy hat and mittens, adding to the Christmas vibe.

We gave it a week after the Christmas parade to do Santa part 2.    We went to Seaport Village, a touristy cluster of restaurants and shops that are on the water in San Diego.  

Susannah was all about it while we waited in line.   

She was decked out and ready for the perfect Santa picture.   

Should we wear the aviators for the shot?   What do you think Dada?

Our turn next!   Still excited!

If sitting with Santa is as fun as playing on these steps, then I'm all for it!

Actually, I think I'm ready to go see Santa right NOW!!

 Oh, how quickly the mood changed once it was actually our turn.......

Scary, so so scary.   

Oh this is torture, Mommy.   Please rescue me!

We ended the weekend by having brunch at Clayton's, the beloved diner in Coronado.   We have always wanted to go, but have never been willing to wait in the line.   It wasn't too crowded on Sunday morning though, so we managed to get a table.  

These are the faces of two people really really excited about blueberry pancakes.



I think it is safe to say that the Mallory's are off to a great start for a fun-filled Christmas season!!  Hope all of you are having a Merry season too.     Don't forget to do that last minute shopping at www.stelladot.com/whitneymallory !

Susannah Stats

We went to our new doctor this week for Susannah's 1 year exam, and, despite the three shots, we LOVED the new doctor.    Susannah seemed to know that the exam table was a bad place to be, so she cried the entire time she was on it, but as soon as we let her down, she crawled around and played happily while I talked to the doctor.  

Here are her stats as of December 5, 2011:
Height:  30.25 inches                  85th percentile          
Weight: 20 lbs, 12 oz                  46th percentile
Head Circumfrance: 47 cm         93th percentile

So it looks like she may be tall like her mom after all.   The doctor said it was normal that she went down in the weight percentage, since she is moving around so much now.   And, the head circumfrance, well, looks like we should start that college savings fund, since Susannah is obviously headed for the Ivy League.

Here are some pictures of her likes and dislikes as a one year old toddler:

She definitely likes to ride the elephant at the kids park in the zoo.

She really likes Meadow.

Really, a lot.

She likes to model her new big girl outfits that she was given for her birthday.   Thanks Uncle Andy!  

And she likes to hug her new monster protector stuffed animal that her M and Papa sent her.  

And she likes practicing her balance in the morning in her new monkey pjs.   Thanks Uncle Hollis and Aunt Kristy!

She DOESN'T like to wear her sunglasses.

She also doesn't like Santa Claus.   This is her face as he rode by in the Christmas parade last week.   She smiled the entire parade until Santa came by.   We are going to try again today with a visit to Santa at his "North Pole" downtown, so maybe she will change her mind.   

Have a good weekend everybody!   And remember, instead of fighting the crowds at the mall, you can go to www.stelladot.com/whitneymallory to do shopping from the comfort of your home.   AND you will know that your purchase is going to support a great cause.   Guys, if you need help picking something out, you can post a comment and I will email you.