Bathtime for Baby Texas Bunny
I was amazed at how leetle Baby Texas Bunny looked as she was getting her bath.
And how cute she looked afterward wrapped up in her towel.
Saying Hello to My Niece
This was the first that I got to hold my niece. See how she has ahold of my fingers. She is just too precious. It has been a lot of fun holding her and seeing her facial expressions. Or looking at her as other people hold her or she swings in her swing or plays on her mat. Heck, just about any time. 
I’m starting to get quite a collection of pictures of Baby Texas Bunny and I’ve only been here for one full day!
Here is one with Grandma holding her in natural light.
I’m trying to take more photos with natural light, but sometimes the brightness makes her frown. So, I’ll just be doing my best this week.
Christmas version of Getting to Know Me – Part V.
- continued from before -
21. What is your favorite Christmas movie?
The Cutting Edge. It isn’t exactly a Christmas movie, but it always reminds me of Christmas because it has a Christmas scene in it, has ice skating, and Texas Seestor and I went to see it in the theater when we were both home from college for Christmas break. I watch it every year.
I also like White Christmas a lot.
22. What do you leave out for Santa?
Nothing (ducks head).
But as children we left out a variety of cookies – decorated sugar cut-outs, pfeffer nusse, and peanut butter blossoms (the ones with the hershey kisses in the center). There were always crumbs left when we woke up in the morning. Come to find out, my uncle was always responsible for eating the cookies.
23. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Clothes. Isn’t that dull? Ah well, it is what I really need and I hate shopping for clothes, so I’m asking other people to do the dirty-work for me. I suppose that is rather self-indulgent, but well, there ya go.
24. Merry Christmas Eve!
25. Merry Christmas!
May you be blessed with the Christmas spirit.
Christmas version of Getting to Know Me – Part IV.
- continued from before -
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Going to candlelight Christmas Eve service
17. What tops your tree?
An angel that Texas Seestor made for me when she was in grad school.
18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
Both!
19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
I don’t really have a favorite. Several make me get tears in my eyes when I hear them for the first time each season. I really like the newer ones by Stephen Curtis Chapman. But I’m a big fan of the other albums that we grew up with – Anne Murray and John Denver & the Muppets. 
20. Candy canes, yuck or yum?
Yuck probably. While I like peppermint a lot, a whole candy cane in one sitting is just too much.
Fun Friday Facts (about me) – Christmas version of getting to know me – Part III.
- continued from before -
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it!
It can be pretty, but overall I’m not a fan of snow. Too much difficulty getting around in it (driving).
12. Can you ice skate?
Not very well. Hence, I usually don’t go.
13. What was your favorite gift thus far?
Probably the sports-car red tea set that I received last year from HB.
Note that after talking to my friend (the really nice one) at work about my tea set and showing her the pictures, I was lamenting that I didn’t have a red creamer and sugar(er?). So she remembered that conversation and got me a set for Christmas! Isn’t that cool!? I was so pleased.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Being with family. This especially hit home last year when I skipped spending time with family in order to finish my thesis. I ended up crying and getting very upset about it. It was really awful.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Swedish spritz cookies. It is the only time of year that we have them. You might know them as butter cookies. But these have almond extract in them to give them a unique flavor.
15.
Christmas version of Getting to Know Me – Part II.
-continued from before-
again, feel free to chime in with your own answers!
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Dill pickle doobers! Remember these are the things that I talked about when we went to the State Fair. I was so excited to find them outside of our household. These are dill pickles smeared with cream cheese and wrapped in dried beef then cut into slices (discs). It sounds like an odd combination, but they are sooooo yummy!
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child.
When we were kids, we spent every Christmas at my grandparents (worried that Santa wouldn’t ‘find’ us there) and we wouldn’t open presents until my parents got up; we never woke them up early. So, we’d hang out in the kitchen with my grandparents and eat breakfast. And the one thing we were allowed to do right away was check our stockings. And the stockings were on one side of the house and the tree was on the other, through a big open doorway. So, we’d go in there to check our stockings and we’d look toward the tree and would be so excited! Because the tree had more presents than the night before – Santa came! He found us! And then of course we were excited about our stockings too. It all comes together in a memory of a very special time.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don’t remember.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Nope. All presents are on Christmas day.
10. How do you decorate your tree?
With care. I love looking at the ornaments as I unpack them from the boxes that they are stored in. I also like hanging particularly special ornaments at eye-level and particular ones near the angel on the top.
Christmas version of Getting to Know Me – Part I.
I got this as an email from AquaSchwa. I was thinking that as we approach Christmas, I’d post the questions and answers to some of them on different days.
Feel free to chime in with your own answers if you feel like it. That is part of the reason why I’m just doing part of them at a time. I think it is too hard to do too many at once.
1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?
Hot Chocolate – did you really have to ask?
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
As children, Santa wrapped presents and my sister and I would take turns opening them. Now that we are older, Santa doesn’t leave presents – they are all from family.
3. Colored or white lights on the tree/house?
White outside – living in New England for 7 years rubbed off on me. Almost everyone does the ‘classical’ white lights outside.
Colored inside – the more the better. But no flashing or craziness.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No, it always seemed like an odd tradition to me. I kiss the people I want to kiss when and where I want to kiss them; I don’t need prompting.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
The weekend of Thanksgiving if we are home. If we aren’t home, as soon as possible. Usually the weekend after. If I don’t do it that weekend, it kind of bugs me and makes me feel like I’m cutting short the Christmas season. Because by that time, the advent wreath is getting lit at church.
- to be continued -
Hot exercising Chicks – Week 45
Ugh. This is such a terrible time of year for exercising. Is anyone else doing better than me (none this week)? Please say yes. Maybe it will help motivate me.
Actually I think my best hope is to get back into it while I am in Texas and enjoying the nicer weather and then maybe trying to stick with it more when I get back. Perhaps I’ll make a New Year’s resolution about exercising for the first time ever.
So how did you do this week?
Favorite niece’s fuzzy head Friday
I couldn’t resist sharing this one today, since I just got it and LOOK! You can see her hair and her eyes are open. Actually, since I’m used to newborns being pretty close to bald, her having so much hair makes her look older. But then I see a photo of Trainwreck or Texas Seestor holding her and I’m reminded of just how tiny she really is. Note, the set on Flickr is updated.
In other news, I had a migraine all day. But I’m finally well enough to eat and be out of bed and be on the computer. blah. I hate days like this. Unfortunately, this also means that I’ll be working tomorrow to make up for the experiment that I was supposed to do today. Gotta squeeze it in, since I’ll be off from Christmas to New Year’s. But that’s okay, I’ll just play Christmas music loud in the lab.
Favorite niece’s fuzzy head Friday
I couldn’t resist sharing this one today, since I just got it and LOOK! You can see her hair and her eyes are open. Actually, since I’m used to newborns being pretty close to bald, her having so much hair makes her look older. But then I see a photo of Trainwreck or Texas Seestor holding her and I’m reminded of just how tiny she really is. Note, the set on Flickr is updated.
In other news, I had a migraine all day. But I’m finally well enough to eat and be out of bed and be on the computer. blah. I hate days like this. Unfortunately, this also means that I’ll be working tomorrow to make up for the experiment that I was supposed to do today. Gotta squeeze it in, since I’ll be off from Christmas to New Year’s. But that’s okay, I’ll just play Christmas music loud in the lab.