A Southern Holiday with a celebration of 1 year of Harper

I can't believe how late this post is...Harper turns 1 and mom stops documenting. What kind of a mom am I? This is our trip to Texas for the holidays. We celebrated Harper's first Christmas and first birthday. It was wonderful to see so much family and watch Harper discover the wonder of the holidays.

The fun began Christmas Eve at Grammy Vecchio's house with Aunt Andrea. Harper got gifts from Aunt Deirdre, Uncle Martin and Aunt Pat, Aunt Andrea, and Grammy. Here she is opening a fun bath toy from Aunt Pat and Uncle Martin. We then went to Aunt Therese's to celebrate with the Lindners, and Bartholomews. This has been a tradition in Grammy's family since we all moved to Flower Mound in the late 70's/early 80's. I cannot remember a Christmas where I didn't celebrate with my cousins and aunts and uncles at Aunt Therese and Uncle Dale's with the trains below the tree. It meant so much to me to introduce Harper to the same tradition.

Christmas morning, Harper got to experience the Wille tradition of stocking opening. Her stocking, thoughtfully made by Nene was bigger than her, but she loved discovering everything inside. We all enjoyed laughing and spending time together while we opened gifts and enjoyed a yummy holiday dinner.

The best gift of the day was this activity table from Aunt Heather, Uncle Curtis, cousins Connor and Hunter. She still loves this table...almost 2 months later.

We had fun playing with the box...typical.

We took Harper to the park around the corner from Nene & Papa's house. Of course she loved the swings and eating bark.

Dinner with grown-ups...Harper made the transition to whole cow's milk and ate everything we ate the entire trip.

Harper and her cousins Hunter (Longhorns) & Connor (Red Raiders).

Aunt Andrea, daddy, Harper and I took a quick trip down to Kingwood to see Nanna & Nanno. We got a chance to reconnect with our cousins Frank, Mark, and Valeta Vecchio and their families. Frank's birthday was Dec. 28, so he and Harper celebrated together. Harper was also infatuated with Mr. Freeze's dog bed (Valeta's dog). Mr. Freeze wasn't so fond of Harper.

Exploring Nanna & Nanno's porch.

After returning back to Flower Mound, we spent time with Aunt Andrea and Grammy at Grammy's house. New Year's Eve, we went to Sonoma Grill (Aunt Andrea's and my favorite restaurant in Flower Mound). We had a great time although none of us made it to midnight (11:30).

We got a chance to see Uncle Marcus and Mollie. They brought Harper a fabulous teddy bear bigger than her. She also took her first steps at this Starbucks (although she didn't truly take off walking on her own until we returned home).

We made sure to celebrate Harper's first birthday with family. Aunt Trudy and Uncle Jerry provided the appropriate attire (my first birthday onesie). We had Nene, Papa, Grammy, Aunt Andrea, Uncle Dale, Aunt Therese, Aunt Monica, and Uncle John, yummy food and H's first birthday cake. She wasn't so sure what to do at first, but she quickly embraced the sugar of the cupcakes. :)

Everyone was spectacularly generous and Harper really started to get the hang of opening gifts. Dare we say she started to enjoy it?! It was a fabulous first birthday for our first baby. And can we just, holy cannoli, it's been a year and we're all still alive and healthy.

Harper is so lucky and so are we to have such a loving and supportive family.

We had time for one last trip to a park before flying out. Harper loved the swings and slide again. But this orange thing-y was not her favorite. Thank Aunt Andrea for saving her!

The mountains came out to play

East Coast State of Mind

For the Thanksgiving holiday we decided to travel back east. I had not been back to NYC since we left 2 years ago and it would give us the chance to introduce Harper to Uncle Martin, Aunt Pat, and Aunt Deidre down in Richmond, VA.

We arrived in NYC late Sat. night and went back to our old Upper Westside neighborhood for dinner at one of our favorites, Henry's. Harper was still on West Coast time, so she was a perfect angle at dinner. The next morning we met our friends Melissa and Sean for brunch and introduced their daughter Olivia and Harper. They were so cute destroying the restaurant together.

Then we walked all over Brooklyn. We went to our old hood...still hipster mixed with sketchy. We got coffee at Citizen and walked by our old apartment building.

Then we went to Brooklyn Heights and played at the park. Harper loved the NYC swings just as much as she loves Seattle swings.

The Brooklyn Bridge was under construction, but we had to get some pictures with it anyway.

Harper's first subway ride. She loved looking at all the people.

...and Time Square was serious sensory overload. She was so excited by all the lights and noise.

We met Aunt Pat and Uncle Martin at another favorite...Tony's in midtown. We over ate and watched Harper make yet another mess before falling fast asleep on daddy's chest (rare for her).

The next day I went back to Brooklyn to introduce Harper to my friend Jodi and Karen, and then the fabulous community of P.S. 8 (my old school). It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone there and hear how my old students had grown. Then Harper and I met Patrick, Erin, Michaela, and Kevin at a bar in mid-town. Yes...you heard correct...NYC doesn't seem to mind if you bring a baby in a bar. We ate good bar food and had some fabulous laughs with old friends. Irv met us later, so Patrick and Irv could pose for their "my two dads" picture.

The next day we went into the Quad offices and saw Patrick's old work friends. Kate Torpy, came out to lunch with us and gave Harper a super important lesson in credit cards.

Then we took Harper up 5th Ave. and into FAO Schwartz. Cue the sensory overload again.

We continued into Central Park.

After a nap we met our friends Erin, Irv, Mike, and Kara out at City Grill, yet another favorite. Harper was still on west coast time so she played and ate late into the night. She was the perfect baby on her first NYC experience.

Then we took the train to D.C. where we caught another train to Richmond. We had just enough time to eat a quick lunch with my friend Mollie at Union station. Harper had a wonderful time crawling around the open space in the station and we had so much fun catching up with Mollie.

(Already fascinated with jewelry. Daddy was super excited! ha!)

Our first day in Richmond started with Aunt Deirdre and I going for a walk while Patrick went running (a 8 mile run magically turned into a 12 mile run when he took a wrong turn in Aunt Deirdre's neighborhood). We played in the park in the middle of Aunt D. cul-de-sac. Harper loved the swinds, per usual.

We had lots of time to relax and nap and spend time together.

Aunt Andrea and Grammy flew up to spend the holiday with us also. Aunt Andrea and her niece showed their team spirit for UT.

Harper loved crawling around and watching out the back window. The birds and other wildlife running around provided hours of entertainment for her.

The last day we were there, we went to old Gettysburg and then Busche Gardens for their festival of lights. Andrea, Patrick and I got our kicks from riding a looping, crazy roller coaster. We were like kids again.

I was obsessed with getting Harper on her first merry-go-round. She was too small to sit on a horse even if I was holding her. Booo! But she did get to ride in a chair with us.

There were a lot of firsts. Patrick and I marveled at seeing NYC again through the innocent eyes of our daughter. It was truly magical. A perfect start to the holiday season!