Getting in the Holiday Spirit

This year I was late in getting my Christmas cards out, it took me/us days to decorate the tree (and the rest of the house), and I haven't had time to bake cookies. But I am done Christmas shopping (and wrapping), a new record for myself! Now I'm just counting down the HOURS, yes hours, until Kat arrives from London!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As Dan pointed out to me the other night, I've been looking forward to her arrival since I said goodbye to her on New Year's Day last year. Alexa is going to LOVE spending time with Aunty Kat ♥ After spending a few days with her, we are excited to head to Perry (probably on Tues, maybe Wed) for CHRISTMAS!! We will stay there probably until Sunday (no set plans though). After a few more days with Kat in Columbus we are excited to head to West Virginia to meet Andy, Cathy, David, & Natalie for two nights. The seven of us (plus Chloe) are renting a cabin and going to do Christmas together (decorating a mini-Christmas tree, baking & icing cookies, a Christmas dinner, gift exchange, etc.).

Well, enough with upcoming plans... Let's take a quick glimpse at the past two weeks in the Ritchey house:

Here is a video of Alexa making animal noises :-) Since this video was taken (on 12/3) she has learned what noises a pig, chicken, and cat make.


Alexa adores George, her gorilla, and she has discovered how to go bouncy-bounce on him!


She knows that a car goes "vroom..." and can identify all of the flashcards on the floor around her.


Look how much Alexa enjoys food....


A little dancing clip to "Red High Heels," which is Alexa's favorite song.


Here we are decorating our big Christmas tree in the living room. I'll take pictures of the rest of the house all decorated another time to share with y'all because we have two more trees & TONS of other decor :-)










Alexa and I hanging my favorite ornament on the tree. One that Danielle made for me when she was in elementary school. It is a 6-point, crooked, heavy-as-hell, clay, star. It is ALWAYS the last ornament we put on the tree and we save it a "prime spot."










Alexa took off from the living room (where we were decorating the Christmas tree) to the family room so that she could be closer to the music, haha.


Although I haven't taken photos of the entire house decorated (including the outside for the first time in the three Christmas's we lived here), I did take some of our new dining room furniture all decorated for the season because I love how it looks!




















A few Saturdays ago, the three of us went to Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo. It was cold out so we bundled Alexa all up, smeared Vaseline on her face, and covered her with blankets to endure the weather for an hour and a half to see the GORGEOUS light display! She kept her arms out like she was flying the entire time, lol. It was a fun family date ♥


















































Last weekend we made the trek up to Perry again, with a car load full of Christmas presents (there was no way everything would have fit in just the trip up for Christmas). When we arrived in town we stopped at Gram's house to visit (and of course, eat, haha). Alexa loves to "cook" (I put that in quotes because she says the word CONSTANTLY - I mean she wakes up in the morning and asks to "cook.")!! She is definitely a Gachuk girl :-)










Gram giving Alexa kisses & hugs for doing such a good job walking, and then helping her "cook."










Throughout the entire weekend it was like something clicked in Alexa's head and she decided to walk. It was awesome!!! I am in awe watching her walk & talk, walk & clap, walk & stop to dance, etc. Even though she will always be my baby, she is definitely a baby no more.

On Sunday, we went to Breakfast with Santa which was held at the field house of Perry High School's CFC. There were tons of blow up Christmas decorations, the Captains' mascot, and Santa. Plus lots of kids for Alexa to walk up to :-) She got really fussy any time one of us picked her up (hence the not-so-great pictures) because she is Ms. Independent now.










Here's our little princess walking :-)














This was A's third time meeting Santa, and she still loves him. In fact, this time she tried to give him a kiss ♥ Can you see how intently he is listening to Alexa's Wish List for Christmas? Haha.










Sharon and Rich came to Perry with R.J. and Ardynn for the breakfast too :-) As always, it was WONDERFUL to see the Soika Family! Aren't R.J. and Alexa a cute lil couple, hugging and holding hands??










This past week I had to decorate my first cake for class. The photo on the left is the pattern I was aiming to create. The photo on the right was my actual cake. Not too bad for a first cake!










I'll say Ciao now and let Alexa end the blog posting tonight...