We concluded our holiday season by celebrating "Chrismukkah". For us, Chrismukkah is the ultimate holiday -- a combination of Christmas and Hannukah. Who could ask for a better holiday!
Hannukah arrived first this year. Madilyn enjoyed watching the candles being lit each night. And more importantlly, she enjoyed unwrapping a gift each evening. We know conceptually she didn't really understand the holiday, but we still enjoyed beginning the tradition with her.
To bridge Hannukah and Christmas, we decided to host our first annual "Chrismukkah" party. It was a fun evening full of family, friends and traditional Jewish and Christian appetizers, including the ever popular latkes. Josh and Greg did an outstanding job "manning" the latkes bar. (I cannot believe I didn't take any pictures of them.) Everyone enjoyed the latkes immensly and know of several people who indulged in more than one. Our party also included the reading of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. It is an old tradition I stole from my sorority days and one I love to watch my father read outloud. It is a fun tradition and we all felt good because ultimately we all gave to charity.
There is one last holiday tradition Josh and I have been enjoying since we began dating. Every year, we visit Glendale Glitters. On Friday and Saturday evenings in December, downtown Glendale is aglow with 1.5 million sparkling holiday lights, and Murphy Park is filled with entertainment, arts and crafts, delicious food and horse-drawn carriage rides. We enjoy getting all bundled up and heading out to walk under all of the lights. This year, we attending this event with a couple of Josh's friends from high school -- Nick, Danielle, Nathan and Baby-to-Be. Nate is about a year old than Madilyn, but they enjoyed strolling around looking at the lights. Here is one of my favorite photos from that evening. The look on each of the children's faces is precious. I can just imagine Madi thinking, "Oooh, I am touching a boy's hand ..." And Nate is thinking, "Why is she touching me? Yuck!" Love it!
And, finally, Madilyn's first Christmas arrived. I know this is cliche, but until you have a child, you really do not understand the full meaning of Christmas. We were so excited to see her face and how she would react to the entire holiday. She enjoyed all of it! None of us could believe how excited she was and how she reacted. Santa gave her a toy box full of gifts and as soon as I opened the box, she started pulling out all of the toys and other presents. It was absolutely adorable! Here are a couple videos from Christmas morning.
The rest of the day was spent eating and playing with our presents. One of Lynsey's presents was the Xbox Kinect. The Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways without using a controller. Imagine controlling movies and music with the wave of a hand or the sound of your voice. It is scary how it scans your body and knows exactly how you are moving to play the game. Josh and Lynsey enjoyed "teaming" up together to compete against the computer. They were a sight to see. Josh was a little sad to see Lynsey go back to Kenya. Not because he would miss her, but because the Kinect was going back to Kenya with her. I have a feeling that Madilyn will be receiving a Kinect as a gift sometime in the near future.
Here are some of the other photos from Christmas. What a wonderful holiday for us all!
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