We Had Ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

In the morning, we opened lots o' presents. Gabe really loved opening all the gifts and had fun with each one. The Pororo doll we bought in Seoul though, was by far his favorite.

What is THAT?

I'm so proud of my new toy, let me show you...


I love my new Pororo doll...

Later we had our family over for Christmas dinner.

Waitin' for some grub...

Christmas is pretty darn fun! See ya next year...

Wordless Wednesday

Thanks for the Pun!

I had such fun reading all the puns and jokes that you submitted in order to win my little ol' book. Gabe and I picked a name out of a hat this afternoon and the winner is...



Congrats to Elizabeth H for winning a copy of "Let's Learn about Korea on Tuesdays." Go ahead and email me your address at joanna1355@hotmail.com and I'll get the book out to you asap. I hope you enjoy it!

Wordless Wednesday

"Hey Babe...wanna go for a ride?"

I 'Give' In

This holiday season a lot of my bloggy friends have gotten in the spirit and have had awesome giveaways on their blogs. I, ahem, finally won one this week...yay me! It just dawned on me that I should join in on the fun.

All you have to do is leave a comment and you're entered in to win a hard copy of "Let's Learn about Korea on Tuesdays." I know some of you have already bought your own copy, so you if you already have a copy, you could give a second one to a family member or friend. Since I love a pun, if you leave any 'punny' comment ...you'll get 2 entries. Gabe and I will pull a name on Saturday, December 19th. Good Luck!

Happy Hannukah!

Friday night was the first night of Hannukah. We lit the candles and Gabe got a gift for the first night. He won't get 8 days of gifts since we celebrate Christmas too and no kid needs THAT many gifts.

Horsing around before dad comes home:


Lighting the candles with dad...
Opening his first gift of the season...

Saturday night we celebrated with family. Gabe had lots of fun playing with his cousins and eating latkes (potato pancakes).

Sitting with mom before we left...

Posing with his cousins in matching sweaters from Papa Harry...


**Big thanks to Gabe's friend C, for drawing my name in his mom's raffle for an awesome Hanbok holder. Sue has won quite a few blog raffles over the past few months. I have taken note of her luck and been harassing her slightly on her blog and others. I'm sure she's glad that's over, and I can't wait for our prize! Way to go C!**

13 Months Today!

Gabe is 13 months today and here's what he's been up to:

*He is beginning to really understand everything you say. If you ask him to go get certain things (football, bottle, his shoes, etc.) he'll find them and bring them to you.
*He still babbles a lot, but the most recent is "Oh-Oh" for "Uh-Oh."
*If you ask him "where is (your milk, the football, etc.)?," He'll shrug his shoulders with a very serious face and put his palms in the air.

Here he is wondering "where is it?":
That's my little 'rascal cat.'

*One of his favorite activities is just walking around the house and seeing what new things he can find. He just loves to 'toddle' around.
*Apparently he likes the snow. After the store today, he walked around the backyard in his new boots and just smiled as the snow fell. We also looked out the window and gazed at the beautiful winter wonderland.
*He's still trying to use all his charms on Posie (our cat). Lately, he's been taking her treats and trying to give them to her. She's still not so sure.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty:


*He likes to squint his eyes and blink real hard at mom and have her do it back during his morning bottle.
*He likes to growl and make funny noises.
*In order to let us know what he wants...he sticks his arm out very straight in the direction he wants to go. That can be the crib, the 'Gabe' food cabinet, mom's keys laying on the counter, etc.
*He's not very interested in TV, but there are 2 commercials that he'll stop dead in his tracks for when they come on. One is for Prius, the other is for the Amazon Kindle. It's so funny to see him playing intently, stop everything and start dancing and looking at the TV. Of course, I then rewind it 10 more times for him.

It is a such a joy to see Gabe grow and change every day. He's always learning and trying to figure things out. He's such a fun, happy, funny, smart, active little boy and we gobble him up every day.

Morning Person

I know most people are not...but I am a morning person. I love the stillness, the freshness, the light gradually getting brighter, the possibilities of the day, I just focus better and am in a better mood. So in turn, I am not a night owl. In fact, when I was in college my motto for studying was "If it ain't done by 1 (am) it ain't gettin' done." My hours at my job for the past 13 years were 6:30am-4pm, and that suited me fine.
During the past few weeks, I'm tapping back into my morning groove. Lately, I've been getting up at 5:30 taking a shower making my coffee, checking my email and blogs, listening to Gabe babble in his crib, then getting him up at 7am. It's so nice to have this morning time and be dressed before 9am. I find that I just function better all day.

Whether or not this homey becomes a morning person, remains to be seen:

Santa is Soft

I wasn't sure how Gabe would react to Santa...I should have figured he would love him. He leaned back and rolled around in Santa's soft beard with lots o' giggles. Santa said he can come back anytime he'd like.

Hey Ma...did you know this guy has a soft beard?

Free Shipping!

Thanks to Elisabeth for letting me know that Blurb is offering free shipping on my book if you type in BLURBMERRY in all caps.