Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Apple Juice

I figured I should post something non-movie-review and talk about my Christmas holidays. So here goes...

I picked up Maggie (for those of you not paying attention, my 3-year old niece from California) on the 22nd from the airport - no she was not travelling alone, her parents were with her, of course. So the airport has this crazy rule which only partially makes sense - you cannot "stand" at the exits; only active loading and unloading allowed. It was cold, rainy and my brother needed me to watch Maggie so he could get all the bags (including the car seat), which meant I had to "stand" at an exit. Good news was no one bugged me about it - whew!

We got home to Gramma and Grampa (my parents) and the fun began. Dinners together, cute Maggie-isms, lots of Christmas memories.

It all started with taking her to the zoo on Thursday. She LOVES going to the zoo and had never seen live Pandas before. So off we went, in the freezing temperatures. The woman selling tickets said everything was half price since it was so cold and only the Pandas and Elephants were out. Funny thing, Maggie counted 22 different species that she saw. Granted, a lot of those were in the Reptile House, but still 22 animals. I was smart enough to take quarters and pennies with us because Maggie collects those smashed pennies with the pictures on them. Thank goodness, we found 2 machines and she was very happy to get more smashed pennies for her penny passport back home.

On Friday, Maggie and I made cookies (with help from Mama) - Oatmeal Double Chocolate Cookies. Maggie helped by pouring the sugars into the mixing bowl, adding the eggs (which she had me crack for her), and scoops of flour and oatmeal. I dumped in the chocolate chips and she directed my stirring. I prepared some cookie sheets for her and she and her mom (My sister-in-law, Christina) used the cookie-scoop to place them on the sheets. Then, Maggie's job was to count the cookies. Very cute. So we put out some cookies and milk for Santa and my brother was kind enough to consume them this year. Maggie was quite distressed that Santa did not finish all his milk. We explained he was in a hurry and didn't have the time to finish it all.

Christmas was great - Maggie helped to pass out the presents and seemed to love all her new things. She was enthralled with the Little People under the tree when she came downstairs.

We had a nice Sunday with the family. I saw my cousin Carrie "Bear" who I hadn't seen in close to 7 years. It was fabulous catching up with her and seeing my Uncle Alan who I am pretty close to.

Maggie left on Monday morning and I was very sad. I shed a tear or two as no matter how much time I spend with her, it never seems like enough. I will say that when I was sitting in the long line of cars at the airport - Maggie yelled out "Dadda, Aunt D - I found a Spotting Park - look there" and there, my friends was a parking spot. Now it was way far away from the terminal, but god love her!