Asheville - Christmas 2009

Before I forget about our adventures, I wanted to put down some of the places we visited in Asheville. We met up with Grandma Janet and Grandpa Dean right after Christmas (Dec. 26) since they were out this way visiting other family (we have no good pictures with them - boo).

We stayed at a Holiday Inn that had a suite with two rooms so that we could put Ripley to bed while we played games and talked with Mom and Dean. It also had an indoor pool. I had forgotten what joy Ripley takes in swimming. She squealed and splashed, and loved the "humpty dumpty" game where she sits on the wall, reaches for our hands and then jumps (or rather steps) into the pool.

After an adventure at the Biltmore Estate, we had a late vegetarian lunch at the Laughing Seed Cafe. It is so exciting to eat somewhere that I have to read every item on the menu because I can eat them all. Asheville was overall one of the most veggie places I've been.

On our final morning, we ate at The Early Girl Eatery. Scrumptious. And a fun pail of toys for Ripley. As usual, she enjoyed pancakes!

Christmas 2009 - New Jersey

This is out of order, but we were in Cedar Brook for Christmas Day. Ripley got to wear her Christmas sweater and enjoyed wearing her cracker crown and playing in the snow with Uncle Culann. She finally started calling grammy Vivienne, "Mi Mi", and while "Pop Pop/Paw Paw" is still quite high in her esteem, he's officially got competition.

Among the many things she got, she ended up with some stylish sunglasses and a plain old Elmo. She's a bit obsessed and we wanted to indulge her slightly, but without all of the bells and whistles.

The BIG Snow 2009 - preChristmas

The Saturday before Christmas, Baltimore got about 20 inches of snow. School was cancelled for all three days it had been scheduled that week, so there was lots of time to play. Aunt "Nona" came over and Daddy shoveled snow. I stuffed Ripley into a snow suit that was about a year too small, but we made it work.

Vist to Santa 2009

Photos of the Snow of December 2009 in a subsequent post, but I have the CD with the Santa picture, so I wanted to upload it while I had the chance.

We ventured out this afternoon to the Inner Harbor where Santa has a house. Still tons of snow and ice and slush on the ground. Ripley was a bit scared to sit on her own, so Chad and I jumped in the photo with her.

Because we had issues with the CD we bought last year, they gave us the super package for the cheap package price. We went with the purple theme like we did last year. And exactly the same Santa. I think it's officially a tradition.

34th Street Year 2 and Decorating the Tree

The holidays are in full swing here in Baltimore. On Friday night, we made our second annual trip up to 34th Street (see pictures from last year). This year Ripley could actually walk and wanted to climb the stairs up to the houses!

I think she is truly beginning to appreciate Christmas. We bought a full-sized 7 1/2 foot tall tree with the lights already attached. For the first week, we had it up with just the lights and every morning when we come downstairs, she says "tree" and we turn on the lights. Saturday, we finally got around to putting the rest of the decorations on the tree. Little big girl Ripley was incredibly helpful, as can be seen in the video below!

Thanksgiving 2009

I know it has been a month since I last wrote. I am not entirely sure where the month of November went, but we just finished up a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend in New Jersey. It's taken until today (Wednesday) for Ripley to stop trying to find her Pop Pop.

We deviated from our normal tradition and stayed the full weekend. We'll head to Cape May for New Years. Chad's 20th high school reunion was Saturday and despite wanting to attend, Ripley stayed home with her grandparents.

While we tried to give her all of the Thanksgiving fare, Ripley only seemed to want to eat the cranberry sauce from Whole Foods and the rolls. Maybe next year...