New Year, New Posts. No, Seriously.

It's been a while, as Jules informed me today.

Seriously.

A lot happened. I went out of town for the weekend of December 17th to go to a friend's wedding. When I got back, I found Kathy had thrown herself down the stairs in despair.

Not really, but she did fall down the stairs while I was eating way too much Indian Food, drinking White Russians with my high school buddies and dancing to a never ending avalanche of music. Trust me, it sounds more fun than it really was. But I was glad to get back home. I was worried that Jules would find someone or something else to replace me as her favorite non-mom thing.

Like a ceiling fan.

Or a seahorse glow worm, courtesy of Jake and Melinda

I was also worried that I may have missed too much, and that she would have grown a tremendous amount in my absence.

She either went to college or was practicing for solid foods. Thanks Aunt Kari for the U of M Onesie

But all was well. She smiled, she laughed, and then she got quiet and read some interesting tourism literature.

"I want to go to there. They have a giant cherry on a more giant spoon." Thanks Uncle Paul and Aunt Jen for the book!

And then came that magical night, which I will never forget.

Christmas Eve, 2010. Jules' first Christmas is a White Christmas

I don't think I could have asked for a better Christmas present for myself than to be snuggled in with my family on a snowy, wintry beautiful White Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, this will just make all future Green, Blue, Brown and slightly orange colored Christmases pale in comparison. Which, when you think of it, is kind of counter-intuitive if you're somebody who studies their colors.

Seriously Dad?

Christmas day we woke up and opened presents.

Kathy and I have matching PJs, for any who wondered why I own such lovely jammas.

Of course, it was slightly bittersweet. Even though this is our first Christmas with an adorable little girl, we very much missed Acrodyl (he was our cat to whom we had to say goodbye last April) as this was the first Christmas since 2004 without him. He was always so good at playing with his (unopened) presents and then falling asleep on the spent paper.

Acrodyl, 12/25/2007

But Amethyst got all confused and thought we were celebrating Amethystmas.

"You got me this tree with all these dangly bits and wires to chew on, and now presents? How awesome to have a whole season devoted to me!"

Oh, and remember earlier when Jules was sitting in the high chair? That was practice for this moment on Christmas Day.

Rice cereal. "Solid" food, after a fashion.

And since then, she's moved on to green beans, squash, and sweet peas. Videos to come later, trust me.

My best friend Zach stopped by with a bag. This seems inconsequential, so let me go back to the trip I took (during which, as I mentioned, Kathy also took a small trip).

Dad. Seriously.

Sorry.

So, I shared a hotel room with Zach and there was a shopping bag which he instructed me not to look at, under penalty of being left behind in New Jersey. This was a serious threat, mind, because he was the one who had reserved the rental car for our return trip, so though I had every intention of fronting some money for the trip, he was still the one metaphorically in the driver's seat. So I didn't look.

Some of you may remember, months ago I posted the story about Juliette's baptism. I posted a picture of her with my parents and said I would tell you about the bib later.

Nobody ever asked for bib follow-up.

The bib came from Zach as a "Welcome to the World" gift. His friend Annie made it. And,he said, there was more of the present to come but Annie had broken her arm, so it might be a while.

Well, it turns out that she got it finished in time for the holiday season. And that is what was in the forbidden bag of mystery from the hotel room, which was the same bag Zach brought with him when he came to visit our house! And in it, we found this:

Photo does not do the quilt justice. Will get better picture later. Thanks Josh and Ning for the outfit!

So, with Christmas behind us and now New Year's Eve (thanks Auntie Mo and Uncle Kevin for hosting, and thanks Cousin Lydia for letting Jules use your crib while you were at your grandparents' house), we've taken the tree down and are settling into a winter routine. Which involves lots of this:

Rice Cereal, Green Beans, Squash, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish bib to match my shirt.

Stay tuned, I'm going to get back into the habit of blogging. I've got videos of Christmas morning and videos of Jules eating solid foods which I find entertaining. Plus, as always, more pictures and more stories. I hope everyone had a safe, happy and warm (you know, spiritually and emotionally if not meteorologically) holiday season and have a prosperous 2011!