christmas with the family

sydney's second christmas, but she didn't quite get the present opening thing yet. she had more fun tearing little shreds of wrapping paper from the package across the room to the trash and then coming back for another shred. she did love all the new books she got, though. what fun to get to share that day with her

ooo! watch out pop! oh, that fire's just on tv. nevermind.

merry christmas to all in richmond!

then it was off to ocean springs for the rest of the celebrating with the lafontaine gang, or the belles and beau as they like to refer to themselves...
our 'christmas' morning on lafontaine began with the traditional eggs, grits, biscuits and sleepy eyed wadethe life-sized picture of marian was quite a hit and we spent much of our picture-taking energy thinking of funny poses to put her inthis was a cape anna got as a little girl and now gets to enjoy all over again. nice work, aunt paris!one of marian's faves, an ameila earhart style hat happy christmas morgan!marian showing off her new kitchen- snazzola!wades new thumb piano. his students are sure to love itand the fantastic socks from vilma along with baloons, feely balls, chocolate and an original story staring all of usout on the beach with the kite from al and sotiria. according to the instructions, this thing could fly with impressively little windunfortunately, the wind at the beach that day combined with me running, wasn't quite enough to keep it aloft for long. remi is doubtful, which makes me try even harder...but in the end, i gave up and went out on the pier with everyone to savor some chocolate, wine and sunset over the water.after sunset, we went back to the deck for a fire. marian, who professes to love rio, was still a little possessive of her pretzels.