Nollaig Shona Duit

The Night Before Christmas

Our Christmas Eve tradition starts at Grandma & Grandpa Abbotts home. We go for a wonderful potluck dinner of Ham, Shrimp, Potatoes, Cheeseball, Cranberry Salad, Fudge, Cashew & Peanut clusters and lots of other yummy food. We watch a slideshow made by Lucas, of everyone's photos from the whole year. Everyone looks forward to this, we laugh and this year we shed tears. We are missing the Patriarch of the family, Garth. But, he was with us in spirit and a little elf even dropped some gifts on the doorstep for Diana from him :) The kids all get in their new Christmas jammies and we take a stairs picture of them. We read the Christmas story from Luke 2and sing Christmas songs together. Then we all head home to our homes. This year was special because Grandma Abbott stayed the night at our house. She opened presents with us on Christmas morning. It was so fun to have her with us and to continue this tradition that we shared since 2 years ago. Before bed, Lucas always reads "The Night Before Christmas" to them. The kids could hardly sleep with excitement but I have to say they went to sleep faster than I have ever seen them, even Isla.

Isla @ 6 months

These are some of my favorite shots of Isla this month. I can't believe she is 1/2 a year old already. She is still my sweet little angel. She has 2 more teeth coming through on top and there is a huge gap between them (she gets that from grandad Devine.) She loves to snuggle into my neck, which I love. She also loves to grab whatever she can and she is fast. She is pretty quick. We were at lunch at a restaurant one day and I was holding her and went to take a sip of a full glass of ice water. She grabbed the glass and sent it tumbling all over me and the floor. Not very fun, but she was happy with herself. She is a great eater and is enjoying being introduced to lots of new baby foods. She is rolling all over the place and rolls till she gets stuck under a piece of furniture. I know before long she will be crawling. She loves bath time. I fill the tub up with her lying in it, with just a little bit of water. She loves to splash and kick her feet. When her hair is wet the top is curly, so we will see if she has curls like her sister. We love our little Isla Maeve and are so happy she is part of our family.