Christmas at Midnight

Every year since I was a little baby we went to Grandma Bella's on Christmas Eve and opened presents when the clock striked midnight. The whole family gathers and there are always tons of gifts to be opened. This was Bella's first time of course. She woke up ok at 11pm and fine in the car ride but when we got to grandma's she got a bit cranky. She had her good moments and her bad that night. When she started opening her presents though she got a second wind and was so excited. She was riping the paper off and then she would make all kinds of noises towards her new toys. She did much better at opening present here then at Nana's.

Bella with her cousins Brandon and Ryan

Bella and Aunt T

Grandma in the kitchen

the boys gathered around the table

she got a mailbox and anyone who knows Bella knows she loves her mail :)

Grandma got her a baby doll and she was feeding it a bottle. It was so cute

Has anyone seen Abby?? Oh there she is hiding in her pile of gifts!

We had one more Christmas to attend the day of Christmas. That one was held at the DiTore's. Those pics I will post later.

Christmas at the Gritters

Our first Christmas was at my parents. We woke up Christmas Eve morning and treated it as if it was Christmas day. We all went to breakfast and then came home and opened presents. Bella wasn't to sure at this time on what to do with all the presents. We all had to help her along.

Aunt T got her this cool book with a train and the track is park of the book

she found herself in the mirror on the table and was trying to lick herself

my Uncle Bruce then came over and we had our Christmas dinner. Joe cooked a great standing rib roast.

Bella played Papa's drums later on

Santa then came down our street later that night before we went to Christmas #2

Vegas

My sister and her long time boyfriend, Frankie surprised us on Christmas Eve with the news that they are engaged and have been planning a wedding in Vegas for April 5th, 2011. Congrats to them!

Park

So our first stop for the holidays was my parents house in Plantation. We went down on Tuesday and we went to the park. Bella loves the park and had to much fun which makes us even more excited for her birthday party.


Aunt T took her down the slide

then Papa & Mama helped her

feeding the ducks

Disney

Eariler this year Joe and I did some volunteer work and earned 2 tickets to any Disney park. We saved them until the end of the year so we could take Bella for an early birthday celebration. Yesterday was the big day and her first visit to the Magic Kingdom. The day started off a little chilly but by the afternoon it was a beautiful day. Bella was a great girl all day and ooed and awwed at everything.

she wouldn't turn around for this pic because she was to busy taking everything in

we were watching the parade and she kept reaching out to all the floats

our first ride of the day was Buzz Lightyear

riding dumbo

It was a toss up for favorite ride. Bella loved the carousel and "Its a Small World"

she kept trying to grab the horse next to us

she was in awe with "Its a Small World"

she kept smiling at all the little people dancing and singing

meeting Mickey and Minnie. She was alseep when we got into the room and when I picked her up she never cried but she looked up, ooed and pointed. We took her over to them and she gave kisses to both of them.

she is now part of the club

Snow

Nana and Papa came to town last weekend and took Bella to see snow. The City of Oviedo brought in 6 tons of snow for the kiddies to play in. Bella really enjoyed crawling through it and trying to eat it.

Nana and Papa

picture taken right before she ate a handful of snow

trying to make a snow angel

Bella didn't want Nana and Papa to leave so she crawled into their suitcase

Santa

I know its been awhile but our hard drive crashed so we have been without a computer for almost 2 weeks now. Our printer hasn't been working either so I wasn't able to print our montly birthday sign. Bella did turn 11 months and we are full speed ahead with planning the first birthday party.

I'm currently using an old dinosaur computer that I happen to have in our back room and it is extremely slow and took me forever to post these pics but I knew I needed to do it. Last week we took Bella to see Santa and Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma Grace came along.

Bella looking very serious with Santa

then she thought maybe I should check this man out

Grandpa, Grandma, and Great-Grandma Grace

Mommy & Daddy