why can't every day be like christmas?

christmas eve brought the most magical gift ever...

elsie and justin's new baby, little aesop. with a head of the softest black hair, a sweet sleepy demeanor, and constant tiny cooing mews like a kitten.

visiting them filled christmas eve with the purest love that only newborns bring.

the whole proud family...we loved hearing all about the birth. elsie was a champ, not even going to the hospital until she was nine centimeters dilated.

spent some sweet quality time with our own little toot getting ready for the next day's festivities. i boiled cinnamon sticks on the stove for ambiance and we watched Meet me in St. Louis. We visited with darin's mom and wrapped gifts and i ate all the goodies i've been baking.

we set up the couch bed to sleep out by the christmas tree just for the fun of it. then darin gave me my best gift: a dvd he made of lucy's life so far....starting from the end of my pregnancy and that day at the river, and ending with winter solstice and lucy bouncing and playing. needless to say, i got pretty weepy and my heart exploded. it is fifty minutes of my own personal view of heaven.

waking up together is always bliss.

in the morning darin gave me my other favorite gift: a poem he wrote in calligraphy about our baby. it's called "the milky way"and again, i wept. sigh. i am one sappy mama this year.

then we read a christmas book that was my own as a child...

and opened our stockings together. lucy is just old enough to enjoy checking out each item that we pulled out for her.

lucy's loot:

we got gussied up in our holiday frocks. lucy's was a gift from missa and clover back in the spring when we all met up in nevada city. i remember at the time it seemed so distant that i would have a fancy little babe of my own. and now here she is in all her glory with one of her favorite people on earth, emmy.

it's so nice to live with joey and emily so they can be a big part of this baby's upbringing. i think all the attention helps her be the best little happy babe in the world.

ah christmas day with my tutti.

the whole family gathers at our house which makes christmas day pretty relaxing for us. 

matt and amy and the kids were here giving lucy lots of attention and fun and lovins.

check out matt's amazing southwestern style "christmas" shirt.

bella got an ipod shuffle filled with music from her dad and headphones. never to be seen again without them.

darin blended up a big orange julius smoothie for everyone to share for breakfast.

we had so much fun together all day long.

don't kill me ade, this is too cute not to share:

em had legwarmers made from recycled sweaters for all us girls with "sis"embroidered on them.

grandma georgie joined in a spontaneous round of christmas carols.... 

with mikie on the uke.

gifts included lots of new reading material...

nana made lucy a new "nicey" from reproduced vintage fabric.

and lulu's big gift was a toy piano. we thought it would take a year or so for her to get interested but she already likes to sit in front of it in her little bumbo chair and touch the keys. so cute!

addie got her longed-for mocs, which look quite fetching on a pregnant lady, hm?

the festivities went on well into nighttime. joey and art worked in the kitchen again and we had a huge mexican feast with pops' homemade salsa, with all manner of treats for dessert.

there is nothing more satisfying to me than a day surrounded by my family. i am so lucky to be part of this group, and i'm pretty excited to be bringing up lucy into our madness, silliness, wisdom and love.

best of all magic and cheer and peace to you all for the new year's festivities!