Isabel visits Santa Claus!

Yesterday, we took Isabel to see Santa Claus at the Burnsville Mall. We took her at about 6:30 pm, and the line was really long, so by the time she got in his lap, it was 7:15 and almost bedtime. We were worried that with her being tired and having her "stranger anxiety" that she tends to have, that we might end up with a photo of her screaming in Santa's lap. But actually, the minute we put her in his lap, she turned toward him with these big, wide eyes because she was so intrigued by him and interested in his beard (he had a real one!) She kept just staring and staring at him, and Mommy, Daddy, and the photographer were all making fools of ourselves trying to get her to look toward us at the camera for a photo! She did eventually look and we even got a smile out of her! We told Santa that Isabel was a Christmas Eve baby and he thought that was pretty neat. Santa had such a great demeanor, we really liked him. After she was all done, he leaned over to us and said, "She told me she wants an American Girl Doll, #71. I think you should pass the message along to Grandma." Too funny! Merry Christmas to all of you! May the season be filled with much joy and many blessings as you celebrate the miracle of the birth of our Savior.

Isabel's Thanksgiving

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving with Isabel last week, at Grandma Tina's beautiful new house in Rochester. We enjoyed a wonderful traditional turkey dinner prepared by Tina and Don (I chipped in with the deviled eggs!) and Isabel definitely seemed to enjoy all the new cuisine that I chopped up and put on her tray! Then she had fun being entertained, carried around, and romping around with Auntie Lauren and Uncle Austin. Her biggest entertainment of the day was discovering a bowl of fake mini-pumpkins and gourds on Grandma's coffee table, and digging them out one by one, carrying them around in her mouth, and in general just having at least one, if not two, in her hands at almost all times! It was pretty cute! The things they find to entertain themselves...why do we even buy toys??!!?? We stayed until Isabel's bedtime, and she was a good girl and slept in the car almost the whole way home, where she then played for just a little bit and then went straight to bed. I guess turkey makes little babies tired too!