Christmas II: Watters family and "Muppy"

Alex and I made the brave/dumb decision to make a cross-country flight this Christmas with a wriggling 17 month-old who has no interest in sitting still for 3 minutes, much less 6 hours. While the travel was certainly not what I would call easy, I am happy to report it was better than expected and we had a wonderful time visiting Alex's family. We flew a non-stop red-eye from San Francisco to Boston on Christmas eve, then drove 3.5 hours to Middlebury, VT on Christmas morning. Luckily, Susannah slept for the entire flight and most of the car ride, and since we were traveling on Christmas day, traffic was relatively light. A pre-Christmas snowstorm blanketed much of the northeast in a nice layer of snow, so it was actually quite a pretty drive. At Chris and Cynthia's we relaxed on Christmas day, reserving the gift-opening and Christmas dinner for the 26th. We really enjoyed spending time with them, as well as Martin and Mae who were visiting from Tennessee.
We also worked in a short visit with Alex's high school friends Jon and Lisa and their two adorable girls, Stella and Eva. To our amazement and delight, Susannah played with Stella and Eva for an extended period of time while the grown-ups relaxed with dinner and wine nearby (and by "nearby", I do not mean a nearby restaurant, but rather the other end of the room). Thanks to four year-old Stella, who did a fantastic job keeping and eye on things, we enjoyed a tasty and relatively interruption-free dinner with Jon and Lisa.

For Susannah, I think the highlight of the visit was the Watters' dog, Molly. She has been fascinated with dogs as of late, and as soon as we arrived she could barely contain her excitement, crying "Puppy, puppy" and following poor Molly all over the house. We tried to get her to call Molly by her name, which she did for a bit, but that quickly morphed into "Muppy!". Thankfully, while Molly is not nearly as enthusiastic about Susannah, she is a very good sport about the whole thing.


Susannah makes a tentative approach towards poor, unsuspecting Molly


Sofa time with Grandma and Grandpa


Discussing various aspects of vitamin A metabolism with Grandpa


Three cuties: Stella, Susannah and Eva



Story time with Uncle Martin and Aunt Mae