Aidan's 1st Christmas was fantastic! Grandpa Bell came to visit all the way from Tajikistan! For not having seen him since July, Aidan took to his Grandpa really well and quickly! No stranger anxiety there. We spent a lot of time doing absolutely nothing but enjoying each other...but some highlights was visiting Santa and seeing the Christmas lights on Thompson Avenue; our mini-trip to Sacramento; Christmas Eve with the Sloans and of course, Christmas day at home. Pictures of these times will be posted soon. We're still "decompressing" from the holidays and haven't had time to upload the photos.
Besides, we're running behind on our blogging and need to post some pre-Christmas photos...getting the tree and decorating!
Here we are picking out our tree on the 7th of December - we must have picked the wrong weekend to go because all the good trees were gone. Nothing but wimpy Charlie Brown trees left. We somehow managed to find a decent Noble Fir which disappointingly didn't smell like Christmas...unlike the Douglas Firs, but given that the lot was barren, we went with it.
Grandma and Grandpa Sloan, Nino, Nina and family came over for some chili, cider and Aidan's first tree-decorating:
I've always found it rather odd when grown men/women dressed up and hidden in large costumes (ie. Barney, and in this case, Frosty). There's just something a bit unsettling for me but I can't articulate it...maybe its that fact that I can't see their faces or read their body language, or maybe its that these are adults dressed up as characters appealing to younger audiences, I'm not sure. But something about it all makes me feel a bit creepy. Aidan seems to deal with it okay...here he is meeting Frosty:
