In order to maintain some sanity over the holidays, Grace’s family decided to travel the week before Christmas. They flew to Pittsburgh, drove 4 1/2 hours to Cincinnati (because I-70 through eastern Ohio truly is the most exciting place on earth) and made it in time to party Kentucky-style. Here we see Grace hanging out with her Great Grandma and Grandpa:
Once Grace got her partying out of the way, she was able to focus on more important matters like presents. Here we see Grace convince herself that the prospect of a present is almost worth teaching yourself how to crawl.
As expected, Grace was more fascinated by the wrapping paper than anything else. On the left we see her sampling a new variety of cardboard box (is that a 1997 recycled cardboard?), while on the right, she shows how multi-talented she is by opening a present from Aunt Linda and Uncle John with one hand and playing maraca with the other.
So - December appears to be a highly unproductive month if you are responsible for updating a baby’s blog (my apologies) and very productive if you happen to be a purse thief from Kentucky who focuses exclusively on cars in church parking lots (but that’s another story). We’re trying to go back in time a bit and give everyone a sampling of Christmas 2006 which we refer to more affectionately as “A Christmas Without Sleep”.
Even though Grace’s family spent the vast majority of the holidays away from New York we initially thought “well, we have to kill something and stick it in our living room and put lights and decorations on it.” Fortunately, we didn’t have to be quite so mean and we found a small living Christmas tree for Grace to help decorate:
A key element of Grace’s family’s tradition is to follow the old German tradition of hiding the pickle (and yes, this is a Christmas tradition). As the tradition goes, a pickle ornament is hidden deep within the tree - the child who finds it on Christmas morning gets a “special” present from Santa. Here you see Grace’s parents operating outside the spirit of “hidden deep within the tree” - that’s because the “special” present was a coupon that entitled Grace to sleep through the night for one whole week!
Finally, to properly kick off the month of December, Grace received a very special visit from Lars and Jeremy - who promised that Grace could spend summers with them once they finally get that long sought after flat in Paris’ Latin Quarter. Notice how extra-friendly Grace is acting in order to secure the invite well before her teenage years.
