The Holidays Flaig Style

So, my sister, Teresa, designed this blog for me as a Christmas gift. Being an avid scrapbooker for the last 6 years, I'll have to admit that this blogging thing will take some getting used to. No stickers?? No colored, printed paper?? No quotes in bubble letters?? I have been assured however, that the benefits far outweigh the losses...the greatest of these being that all of my family and friends can access my blog and get Sophie updates without me having to send enormous emails filled with GIANT pictures of my Stinkerbell. So, now that 2008 has been successfully scrapbooked in my usual crafty fashion, I am going to try this blogging thing for 2009.

Here goes.......

This is Sophie. She is 10 months old and and bundle of energy and sass (emphasis on the sass). She is at that wonderful stage of a little girl's development called "Exploring the world with her mouth". If a toy doesn't make a sound, then, surely, it is for sucking/biting/eating, as are blankets, dogs, the couch, mommy's shoulder and magazines. She recently graduated to not needed her bath chair anymore and LOVES bath time. If we ever leave the bathroom door open, she beelines to the tub and tries to climb in.

Did you ever get misty when you saw those "Daddy's Little Girl" commercials where a man and his daughter danced with her standing on his feet?? Apparently my husband, Brandon, did. He is always trying to get Sophie to dance with him. As yet, she is not the most cooperative. Gotta love the guy for trying, though :-)

This is Sophie's first Christmas. Sophie is a honeymoon baby, so although this is not our first Christmas as a married couple, last year I was huge and uncomfortable and therefore a tree with a few ornaments was the extent of our Christmas decorating. This year we went all out, complete with garland and ribbon and our Abominable finally got removed from his plastic home.

Oddly enough, Sophie wasn't scared of him in the least. To commemorate Sophie's first Christmas in true Debbie fashion, I had some custom ornaments made for the occasion.

Sophie was 'hatched' on February 22nd, 2008.

We are no longer just a couple, we are a family.

Sophie doesn't generally get really dirty or stinky, so she doesn't get bathed on a daily basis. Of course, whenever she is going to see one of the Grandma's or Aunt Teresa (who says that heaven must smell like Johnson's baby products) she gets to have bath time. And of course, she has to munch on her rubber duckie.

That sweet, sweet face is made even more precious with the smell of baby oil.

Mommy is getting exceedingly frustrated with the "Is it a boy or girl" questions. My latest attempt at making her look unmistakably female.....

And she pulled them out and was chewing on them in ten minutes. Christmas Eve was the day that Sophie finally took to feeding herself her bottle. I still like to snuggle with her at night and in the morning with her bottles, but golly it's nice to have free hands during the day. I had the freedom to do some early Christmas dinner prep while she had lunch in the kitchen.

Christmas Eve was also the first day that Sophie really noticed the gifts under the tree. She was intrigued by the tree itself, but she finally realized that there were ribbons and bows under there.

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma Judy's. Sophie had quite a time trying to crawl in that dress. She was bear crawling after a while (I couldn't quite get a good picture of it though). To try to tame the beast in this not-so-baby-proofed home, Daddy decided to give her a ride. It didn't work out quite as expected.

Finally, after dinner, it was time to put on her new Christmas jammies and open some presents.

She had quite an affection for mini Gloworm....

Aunt Sue's friend Bob decided to put on the Santa hat and get in good with the baby. I think this picture makes her look like one of the residents in Whoville.

Christmas morning was a special day in the Flaig household. Sophie was more interested in her ribbons and bows than the actual gifts. She liked them so much we thought that she should wear them.

The funniest of Mommy's gifts came from Daddy and Sophie. A book called "Be Happy or I'll Scream - My Deranged Quest for the Perfect Husband, Family, and Life". We all agree I'm pretty nuts - working more than full time, going to school, being a mommy and trying to maintain a household. Hopefully this book can give me some insights to help hold it all together.

Christmas Day involved a tradition with my sister Teresa and her family which we've been doing for the last 10 years. We always have a big dinner consisting of our mom's fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn (some times some other things are slid in, but these are the staples) before we head out to see a kid-friendly movie. This year was my first year to host, since I finally had a house, a husband and wedding china!! Sadly, Teresa came down with a nasty virus the day before and was still not up to par. She spent some time hanging out in the kitchen, but couldn't really contribute to dinner the way she had planned. Darling Meggie, her 16 year old, proudly donned a Ho Ho Ho apron and took her place.

She was extremely helpful and we had dinner in the oven in no time. In our downtime, Meggie couldn't pass up the opportunity to check on her favorite blogs.

While the chicken was baking, I snapped a quick family photo of the Berter Brood before we dug into presents.

As you can see, there's a little Asian boy in the picture. No, their mailman isn't Asian....Teresa and Kevin flew halfway around the world to adopt Carson last October. They are currently in the process of adopting another little girl from a neighboring province. Sadly, Molly Jayne will not be with us until March at the earliest. I couldn't resist getting her a Zoobie pet for Christmas anyway. Choosing the animal was easy - Teresa's favorite Christmas song is "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". This Zoobie Travel Buddy is a stuffed animal which transforms to a pillow with the release of some Velcro straps, and releases a blanket from it's belly with a quick unzip of it's bottom. I figured Molly would get some good use out of it on the long flight home from China.

My first real, grownup dinner table.....

My family.

The cousins.

On December 28th all six of my siblings and their families gathered at Teresa's house to work on a grandiose collage of our family as a Christmas gift to Grandma Jane. This was also the day of another HUGE milestone for Stinkerbell. She had outgrown her infant car seat, so Daddy installed her big-girl car seat.

December 31st...New Year's Eve. We hosted a kid-friendly party for all who wanted somewhere to go, but didn't want to get a sitter. Sophie went down at her normal bedtime, but we woke her up at quarter til midnight so we could ring in the New Year as a family. She was still kind of groggy and a bit distrusting of Daddy's new noisy tongue.

We gave her some noise makers so that she could get in on the action, too. She woke up pretty fast after that!!

And on January 1st, she hit another milestone. She was doing so well drinking by herself with bottles that Daddy tried to give her a sippy cup. There's no looking back now. My little baby is growing up.

That concludes my recap of our holidays and my first blog. I hope you all enjoy watching my little girl and my family grow. Sis, I'll try to do you proud.