Merry [belated] Christmas!!

I hope you had a fantastic holiday and enjoyed your time with loved ones - I know that we did! This was our best holiday ever, filled with a long Perry-cation, plenty of time with [Aunty] Kat, and a mini-vacation to West Virginia!!!

Before we get to the holiday stuff, let me fill you in on what's new with Alexa. Throughout the month of December, she has progressively gotten better and better at walking. She has also learned how to stand without having to grab onto anything. We've been encouraging her to "stand back up and walk" whenever she falls down. This seems to be working out because she hardly crawls at all anymore! It is so amazing to watch her go - she is getting fast!! When I watch her walking around, I am amazed... I cannot believe how much happens in the first year (or so) of a child's life and feel incredibly blessed to have been with her each and every single day to witness her development!

Here is Alexa (mid-December) in pigtails and a Santa shirt that was mine as a baby :-)










Finally, Kat arrived from London!! Words cannot describe how excited I was to see my bestie walk through our front door on December 19th. Alexa recognized Aunty Kat (from her photo blocks) and immediately stuck out her arms when she came in. "Her Highness" (as Aunty Kat calls her) got a British children's book, an adorable monkey hoodie with matching pink pants, and two new tops from Aunty Kat for her birthday/Christmas! After exchanging gifts, we went down to the basement to play.










My bestie and me :-) That evening we had the gang over and had a mini-Thanksgiving feast (courtesy of Tim) because Kat doesn't get to celebrate the holiday in the U.K. We really enjoyed having a bunch of our friends over!!










On Sunday, December 20th, we celebrated Christmas with Dan's parents.










Alexa got two new books, a sleeper, and a savings bond from her grandparents. My in-laws got us a Kitchen Aid mixer (yay!), me a cake carrier, and Dan an OSU Snuggie (he got me a matching one, hehe). The one book that Alexa received Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton was a favorite of ours from the library earlier in the fall, but it is SO MUCH MORE FUN to read now that Alexa knows the noises the animals make!!!










We headed up for our Christmas Perry-cation on Tuesday, December 22nd. Here is Noni & Alexa playing - Noni kept "hiding" Alexa over her shoulders and spinning in circles asking, "Where's Alexa?" Alexa thought it was hilarious!










Every year we go to Mass on Christmas Eve and then go to Gram's house to celebrate the holiday with our extended family. As usual, it was great to see everyone! I really wish we had extended family get-togethers more often!!! Can you tell which member of our family is color blind? We did NOT match intentionally - that's a half truth... Dan, Alexa, & I matched deliberately, but Mom, Dad, & Danielle coordinating outfits was a coincidence.










Gram got Alexa an adorable outfit and money for her bank account. Alexa honestly didn't care about gifts as much as she did the wrapping paper! She spent the entire time we were exchanging gifts putting wrapping paper in the trash or trying to re-wrap boxes; too cute.










Gram got us a gift card to P.F. Chang's - we'll probably use it at Pei Wei, which is P.F. Chang's version of take out (and right around the corner from our house). Before we left, Gram stopped being a hostess to just enjoy time with her great-granddaughter :-)










O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...













Alexa woke up at about 6:30 am on Christmas morning. Wanna know what Auntie said when Alexa went to wake her up? "You've got to be freaking kidding me!" Auntie (or "Yant" as Alexa calls her) got Alexa a Precious Moment (a tradition she has had with her own godmother, Auntie Kathy in NC) and a Dr. Seuss book. JaJa gave Alexa money for her bank account. I cannot even begin to recall everything that Noni and Papa got Alexa, but some of the items that pop into my head at the moment are a gift card to Stride Rite, Disney DVD's, socks, and clothes (including her first Jimmie Johnson t-shirt)!!










But just like on Christmas Eve, Alexa was more enamored with the wrapping paper, tissue paper, and bows on Christmas morning!










Here Dan and I are with our new garage door opener (that Dad is going to help Dan install next weekend). We also received a ton of other gifts from my parents; their generosity is just astounding! I won't bore y'all with the details of what my parents, brother, and sister got us (or vice versa) or what Dan & I got each other, but let me just say it was a great Christmas! Alexa's BIG gift from Santa was a kitchen!! Santa also brought her a bunch of food to go with it.










After we were done opening gifts, which literally took 2 HOURS, Alexa took a walk around the house...


During Alexa's nap, we got the kitchen all set up for her to play with... she LOVES to cook!!




















I FINALLY got a great video of Alexa dancing to "Red High Heels" by Kellie Pickler on Christmas Day. As you're about to hear, Aunt Janine thought it was hilarious :-) Note: hopefully Alexa does NOT inherit Dan's dancing "skills," or lack there of ;-)


For additional photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, click here.

Here is Alexa the day after Christmas. It's not an exciting picture, but it shows how big she is getting!













Paul jokingly put on Mom's "Hug Me" bear sweatshirt and dusted the kitchen cabinets - it was so funny! And Alexa was a jokester herself, playing Peek-a-boo on the pillow :)~










When we returned from Perry on Sunday, December 27th, we attended Ritchey Family Christmas at Dan's Aunt Janet's house. People were trying to get pictures of Dan's grandma with her great-grandchildren (Ewan, Nathan, & Alexa were the only 3 in attendance), but as you can see, Alexa was pretty uncooperative.










On Monday, December 28th, we had our new furnace, heat pump, thermostat, and humidifier installed. So Daddy stayed at home while Mommy and Alexa went shopping with Aunty Kat. We had a wonderful time at the mall, and Aunty Kat treated us to lunch at Panera :-) It was a very fun Girls' Morning Out!!










On Tuesday, December 29th, we headed to Lansing, WV - where the New River Gorge is located - to meet up with Andy, Cathy, David, and Natalie. We rented a cabin for two nights, so that we could celebrate Christmas together :-) On our drive down, we stopped for gas, potty, etc., and while I was changing Alexa I asked her who we were going to see... her first response (no surprise) was "Papa" (her most favorite person on Earth), but I told her no, asked again, and was delighted to hear her say, "Dav." Quickly, I asked her who else and she said, "Nat." For the next two days she pointed at her cousins and called them by name, it was so cute :-) (She also started saying "Unc" for Uncle Andy and "Cath" for Auntie Cathy)










We got Natalie this tunnel for her birthday, and the kids had so much fun crawling through it in the cabin!!




















After the girls went to bed, David impressed us with his "reading" skills! Uncle Dan tried to change the words around, and David corrected him every single time :)~ I was impressed (when he read me a different book) how David reads with such expression and inflection!! I know, corny teacher in me recognizing that and not just enjoying my nephew's story ;-)





On Wednesday morning, we put up a Christmas tree and decorated it with ornaments. Then the kids exchanged gifts. My favorite phrase of our mini-vaca was hearing David say, "Lexa, we're cousins!" It really warmed my heart to see the kids enjoying one another ♥










David and I made cut-out cookies... and I realized just how smart our nephew is! After we were all done, I asked him about the different ingredients we had used and he could tell me almost all of them and how much (e.g. 3 eggs, 2 sticks of butter). While we were baking, Natalie and Alexa learned how to save money with the piggy bank ;-)










Before we had lunch, we took the kids outside to play in the snow. David was very hesitant at first, but ended up having a ball (and even had Andy take him back outside after nap). Natalie had a great time plopping down in the snow, but Alexa hated it. She is definitely her mother's daughter, haha! The last picture I've included from our trip to WV is of David with Chloe's doughnut that he was OBSESSED with.










We really had a WONDERFUL time with Andy, Cathy, David, and Natalie!! It was really hard to say good-bye, like it always is. Hopefully, we'll get to see them again soon :-) For more pictures from West Virginia, click here.

Here is our last family (self) portrait of 2009 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!










I'm hoping now that the holidays are over that I will be able to update the blog more frequently. My intention in starting this blog last year was really directed for when Alexa got older, so that I could post about activities, crafts, etc. we were doing during the day. Soon my blog posts will be filled with pictures/movies of her doing things (like coloring or Play Doh) with quick captions describing what's going on in the Ritchey household. Part of the reason I go weeks without blogging now is because it becomes so overwhelming to think of EVERYTHING that I need to post about... so my goal for 2010 is to have shorter, more frequent blog posts. We'll see how that goes ;-)

We're looking forward to a busy January! There will be two trips to Perry and a visit from my parents. I'm starting my second Master's course next week and PSR resumes this week. Next week, the winter session of Babytime begins - yay, we've missed going to the library each week!!! This week Dan returned to work and will soon begin his next class (only a few more before graduation). We're also looking forward to all of the BIG BIRTHDAYS later this month: Dan's 30th, Mom's 50th, Aunt Janine's 60th, Uncle Ken's 70th :-) Tomorrow is Dad's birthday and Cathy's birthday too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL OF YOU!!!!! Ciao.