Yes, it was a grand success

It was a great first Christmas for Brianna, who arrived dressed to the 9s, including her ruby red slippers. (Those didn't last long--but we had to take a photo!) Note the "baby Bling" on her left arm, a silver bracelet that was given to Laurel by Cousin Gerald & Melissa Baur at one of her baby showers.

I can't believe how much more mature she is now than she was when we last saw her, in August. She had her fussy moments, but was in a good mood for most of the evening.

Tom always describes gatherings like this as a bunch of adults sitting around making idiots of themselves, trying to get Brianna to smile. Alice Nan's husband Joe and Walt were particularly good (a) at making idiots of themselves, and (b) getting a smile out of Brianna!

It was a pretty low key afternoon. Walt and his sister went to Maravilla to get their mother ("Tutu" to Bri) and Brianna seemed fascinated by her.

The guys did most of the dinner, with Joe cooking the turkey, Tom making the mashed potatoes and "Walt making the gravy." To figure out why I put that in quotes, you'll have to watch the video of the day. It's only 5 minutes, but it takes forever to load.

Dinner was delicious and everyone went home too full to eat pumpkin pie! (We did have some later, though.)

We kind of rushed through gifts. The gifts from Bri we opened before dinner while she was taking a brief nap. I just LOVED the canvas-textured photo she gave to me.

Mealtime is a real challenge, as Ms. Brianna seems not to care much about food at all...in fact, she doesn't seem to like it much at all (one trait she did not get from her grandmother, for sure!)

I had great sympathy for Tom and Laurel as I watched them try to get her to eat, to get her to take a bottle, to get her to take a nap, though she was obviously exhausted. But all things considered, her newfound mobility (she is now walking around furniture and "that close" to taking her first steps, at not quite 9 months!) has sweetened her disposition significantly.

I got down on the floor for the first time in...well...years...and interacted with her for about half an hour (and I got up again too ─ everyone cheered.)

I have some good video from today, but it's taking forEVer to upload, so I will add the link, hopefully, tomorrow. It's 1 a.m. I need to sleep!

This has been a wonderful trip and I'm so glad we came.