The Greatest Gift!

Oh the joy! We were scheduled to leave the Denver area on Friday, December 22nd for our Christmas trip home; however, a lovely snow storm moved in on the 20th and dumped 33 inches on us! I ended up shoveling the driveway 3 times; as they say, it's better to shovel 11 inches 3 times than 33 inches once! Samara was able to enjoy the wonderful weather and appeared to tolerate us (see pictures) posing her on the snow mound we had shoveled. By Friday, I-70 had been opened and we left the house at 11 AM, making our arrival at around 2AM CST. This time we didn't have an accident, unlike last year.

Our trip home was great! We were able to see many of our friends and our families. Before Christmas day, Samara was able to visit her great grandma and grandpa...








Grandma Mashburn and cousin Samantha.








She also snoozed...











...and relaxed with cousin Sheldon!

Christmas day was terrific! We enjoyed spending the morning with Shana's family and the evening with my (Chris's) family. Samara sported a new dress that Shana had found specifically for the occassion; I suppose you never get tired of dressing your dolls! Unfortunately, after a short while in the dress, our little furnace became overheated and gave us the "I'm hot" squawk, promting us to undress her!

Samara had fun ripping the paper from the wrapped gifts. It seems, in her short lifetime, that she has grown to like the sound of paper...or anything that sounds like it...and subsequently sticking it in her mouth, which is typical for babies! We actually had a scare at Shana's sisters place! Samara was lying on the floor (back facing the floor) and had been playing with one of her toys. She started gagging and trying to gasp for air; She had something lodged in her mouth!! Shana quickly jammed her finger into Samara's mouth trying to get whatever Samara had attempted to eat! After a few seconds, Shana pulled out a piece of tape (about an inch long) that Samara had pulled off of some wrapping paper. Frightening! Samara's face was red, her eyes watery, but soon returned to normal!

Over the first 6 months of Samara's short life, we have noticed very distinct character traits. One of those traits is portrayed when she has a rattley toy in one hand and begins to vigorously shake it while looking at us with an air of pride. When she realized that her new hammer (picture on the left) made "noise" when she shook it, she became ecstatic!

The piano she received may be one of her new favorite toys. She likes to bang on it (maybe a set of bongos would have been better) and if the piano is overturned and within reach, she will actually turn it upright just to play it!! An amazing feat for an entity only 7 months old!

We also were able to visit with a lot of our friends from Oklahoma! Shana, Samara, and Glenda (a dear friend of Shana's) trekked to the hospital to see their friend Jennifer and her new "wee-one". What an experience!!

Samara met a whole slew of new faces, particularly little faces. She met Liam (Jerome and Nadia's not so little one anymore) for the first time. Liam's new best friend?

Samara found some new pals in while visiting Brian and Kelli: Collin, Gabe (Brian and Kelli's nephew), and Griffen. Maybe in a couple of years Samara can "rough house" with them...

We ended up spending 47 hours in the Jeep (thanks to an internal timer) and drove 2500 miles during our Christmas trip; a one-way trip from Louisville to Tulsa is about 750 miles!! We were able to visit with many of our friends and enjoyed our time immensely! The image on the right is of the drive home. What makes this photo significant is that this was the first time (that we know of) she held a cup all by herself and subsequently drank from it. Growing up so fast!!

I had to take this picture of Samara! Her first Christmas celebration was a success. Who know what will happen next year or what events will take place within the next year! So far, Samara has been the best gift of our lives! I will end with a quote from Samara's 2-year old cousin Tori upon see her stocking on Christmas morning, "This is the best birthday!!"