Merry Christmas!!

Friends & Family,
This Christmas blog update and next week's New Years blog is going to serve as our Christmas letter this year. Dan and I have sent out a Christmas letter every year since we've been married. This year was our best, most eventful year ever thanks to the birth of Eliana!! and we felt like our Christmas letter would be a repeat of what has been on out blog. So with this note, we share an update of our first Christmas with our beautiful daughter and wish our friends and family the best for 2009!!.....

We have all had a wonderful week with family and as my Dad said last night "Ellie has been a trooper". We spent last Saturday with Grandma Eileen's family at my cousin Lisa's house. Here she is with mommy's cousins Melissa and Michelle and Lisa's kids Hunter and Devyn. Hunter is just 2 months younger than Ellie.

Christmas Eve was shared with Grandpa Bud's family at my aunt Jolene's house. In this photo of tired Ellie she went almost all day with no nap, saw lots of family and open gifts...and was very sleepy and ready to go home!

Christmas Day was a full day starting with our own first Christmas morning tradition and then sharing the afternoon with the Wrights. Dan and I plan to make Ellie as much of her baby food as possible when she starts to eat 'big people food' in a couple of weeks (she'll be 6 months already on Jan 10th!) and we gave her a first glimpse at that with a puree of organic peas, potatoes, and carrots on Christmas Day. She also bonded with her Uncle John (aka Buzz).

The Wright's family tradition is sharing presents followed by a prime rib and lobster feast. We are full!! Obvioulsy Ellie has taken most of the gift-giving focus as you can see from her Christmas loot.....Ellie, Dan, and I are heading to St Louis to spend New Years weekend with the Wittmann family.
Merry Christmas,

Michaella, Dan, & Ellie

What's Up Doc?

Eliana is anticipating her first food (besides cereal). First she helped Daddy get the broccoli, rice & cheese dish ready for Christmas Eve and then played with some peppers before chewing on this carrot for a while....we plan to give her some organic veggies for her first real food on Christmas Day.

Ellie Visits Santa

Eliana made a visit to Santa Claus at the Botanical Gardens on Sunday. A little too young to be afraid of the big guy in the red suit (and being the ham that she is), she inquisitively checked him out then smiled at him, her mommy and the cameras. Grandma came with us as well as friends Jackie and Luci. Luci is entering stranger, danger age and wasn't so sure of Santa.