Miss Independent

 We are back from our Christmas travels, though some of us (Allie, aka "Sleeping Beauty") are still deep in Christmas slumber.

We made the trip down to southern Illinois and it went really well. While traveling, Allie discovered her love of independence, as evidenced by her willingness to walk off through unknown places without caring if anyone was with her. Contrasted with her shyness when she got to Grandma and Grandpa Durso's house, we were quite amused.

It was a fun trip full of new experiences. And now that the craziness of the holiday is over, Mama might actually be able to chronicle what happened in the eventful month of December.

The last month

Allie has a new Colts sleeper thanks to Uncle Jon, Aunt Julie and their family!

Look! We're twins!

I swear that wasn't planned. Allie is wearing her Alcatraz t-shirt here. And Mama tends to just wear race shirts during the weekend and just like that we're dressed alike. Allie is going to be embarrassed to be around me when she gets older.

While we were in San Francisco the snow fell. We got home and it continued to fall. So we got Allie's snow boots out.

Unfortunately I couldn't get the boot over her broad foot :-( I've been meaning to try again, these boots are so cute!

I'm surprised at how little I've been posting lately. I still haven't started any of my installments from vacation... I fear by the time I get to it, I will have forgotten everything.

The hustle and bustle of Christmas has taken us by surprise this year. I loved going to California in December but it really caused a time crunch for us. Cramming two long trips within two weeks was harder than we expected! We're headed out Wednesday night for our Christmas journey. December has been a wash for running, and I think its a wash for blogging too. I'll start fresh in 2011.

Christmas?

When we were in San Francisco, we had to keep reminding ourselves that it was December. There were plenty of decorations and even an ice skating rink, but I will admit its not the same without snow.

The huge Christmas tree at Fisherman's Wharf.

Fish statues ourside our hotel decorated with garland.

The huge Macy's at Union Square. This store had 9 floors and the top was "Holiday Lane," all the Christmas items. Santa was there too.

We bought Allie a Christmas ornament. We had to!

There's an ice skating rink in the middle of Union Square. I kind of wanted to try it, but all the people skating were really good and I havn't tried on ice skates since about third grade.

We went in some of the grand hotels around Union Square too. Inside the Westin St. Francis hotel was a huge castle. If I remember correctly what we read, this started out as a small gingerbread-type castle several years ago, and look at it now. It was on a rotating base with a train traveling around in the opposite direction.

More decorations at the Westin.

When we got home, there was plenty of snow! While snow doesn't make Mama and Dada happy, Allie seems to enjoy it.

I got this picture of one of the first times she saw snow. Precious.

Of course, the snow didn't really help us get ready for Christmas last weekend! The month has gone by so fast. I've run 9 miles this month and its already half over. We haven't done any Christmas shopping because of last weekend's blizzard.

Sunday morning we were snowed in, so we just lounged in our pajamas. It was fun, but not productive. We haven't put up the Christmas tree and probably won't because its so late. Kinda bums me out though because we won't be able to hang up the ornament we bought Allie in San Francisco.

This is the only thing I've done so far for Christmas. Three kinds of Christmas cookies that we've been eating all week. The sugar cookies didn't turn out, but everything else did and boy is it good.

So we're hoping to get the rest of our Christmas stuff done this weekend. We have our shopping plan and we're also hoping to do something fun. And there's also my Christmas concert on Sunday. 'Tis the season, even if we got into it late!

Let it snow

When Allie looked out the window this morning...

 This is what she saw:

Uggggh, welcome back to winter in Wisconsin. I'd much rather be here:

The weather here is so cold and snowy and gross, can I have a do-over on vacation and go to California this week instead?

I have uploaded many pictures to my computer this week and need to upload them now to this site. I have many blog posts to write. I plan to post in installments, and I'm hoping for one each day. But for now, just enjoy this picture. I know I am.

We're home!

It was a great vacation, but its always nice to get home. We're driving our car on our roads and got home to our house with our bathroom and our bed. And now we're getting ready to drive down to Rockford and pick up Allie. We miss her like crazy. My mom said she had a good week. She attached herself to Johanna and was much more relaxed when Johanna was around. I hope she remembers us!

I'll be uploading pictures and writing about the trip hopefully today or tomorrow. There's a bunch to write about so it may take awhile. I'm glad to be home, but even more glad that we still have four more days of vacation.

Am I really leaving my baby for six days?

Back in July when we were hatching this vacation idea, I was totally fine with going away for a week and leaving Allie with Grandma and Grandpa Swanson. A getaway without a little one? Sure! But now that I'm faced with taking Allie to my parents' house tomorrow afternoon and then, gulp, leaving without her, I'm getting really sad. This is way different than the first time I dropped her off at daycare. We're not going to see her for six days! We've been together every night since she was born!

I'm told this feeling will pass. I just hope it doesn't last too long.

Allie's new friend

I don't think I ever posted that we did finally give Allie the rest of her birthday presents, two weeks later!

Everything she got was a big hit, including her new friend...

Elmo Live Encore! Or is it Elmo Encore Live? Allie actually got this from Grandma and Grandpa Durso via giftcard. We just had to get it for her after seeing the smile on her face while trying Elmo out in the store.

Unfortunately it seems I didn't take any pictures of that smile. But I got pictures of them playing together! It was funny to see how Monk reacted to Elmo. She was definitely confused by this big red creature.

Allie also dances when Elmo sings. Its the cutest thing you've ever seen. But I do write that a lot... I'll have to get the camcorder out and take some video to prove it.