Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas! Clara checked to see if Santa had eaten the cookies she left.

Santa left her dollhouse on display and she was so excited! As she approached the tree, she threw herself down and said "Whoa!" Then, she crawled forward a little more and said, "Whoa!" As she crawled toward the gifts she said, "I'm getting closer!"

She loves her new baby doll from Grandmom and Grandpop.

Santa brought her a "cutting food" set.

Daddy gave her a toolbelt so she can help with projects around the house.

We had a wonderful Christmas morning and hope all of you did too!

Christmas Eve Party

Clara and Aunt Jen (married 6 days!)

The Virginia Condons
Katie, Baby Meghan (6 months along), Clara (2), and Daddy

The Condon and DeBoyace Families

Daddy and Clara enjoying the delicious food.

Clara sprinkled oats and glitter food on the lawn for Santa's reindeer.

Almost ready for bed in her Christmas jammies.

Clara having one last cookie after selecting some to leave for Santa.

New Jersey Snow

Clara, Daddy and Grandpop enjoyed the snow on Christmas Eve. The colder weather and shade left the snow light and fluffy - not the best for snowmen, but perfect for digging.

Daddy carved Max, the VW spokescar, on top of the grill - complete with a spatula for the antenna on the rear tailgate.

Grandpop found some huge icicles and they built an ice palace.

Christmas Cookies!

On Wednesday, Clara and I made Christmas cookies together for the first time. She loved her festive apron from Grandmom.

Once the cookies were baked, Clara loved adding color and swirling it in with toothpicks.


But the best part was eating the finished product! We think Santa will appreciate the efforts on Christmas Eve.

Snow Fun at Grandma's house

After recovering from the weekend on Monday, we headed out to Grandma's house this afternoon for a visit and a little fun in the sun. The 24 inches of snow we received on Saturday had settled and made nice packing snow - perfect for snowballs and snowmen. Clara is finally outfitted with the proper snow gear thanks to Grandmom, and she was much more comfortable without "frizhery" toes.

Grandma built Clara an amazing snowman. Mommy was forced to stay behind the camera since the littlest Condon is making lifting and bending more difficult. With mulch for eyes and a nose, celery for a mouth, radish buttons, and some of Grandpa Pretz's old winter gear, the snowman came out very well. He is perched high on the shoveled snow next to the driveway ready to greet visitors to the Pretz house.

Clara wasn't ready to go inside, so she tried her hand at shoveling the sidewalk.

But, she settled for eating some leftover celery instead.

A Wintery Wedding Weekend

Jen and Dan tied the knot on Saturday, December 19 amidst 24 inches of snowfall.

Clara was thrilled to be the flower girl in her princess dress.

She also enjoyed watching the snow fall.

After performing her flower girl duties flawlessly, she was sound asleep through the second half of the ceremony.

But she woke up ready to dance the night away at the reception.

Decorating the Tree

Clara was so much fun this year! First, she helped us straighten the lights. Then, she put a few ornaments on the tree. But her favorite thing was unwrapping all of the ornaments from the tissue paper and commenting on each one.

She's so proud to have a big tree in her living room!

Getting Our Tree

Clara's Christmas crafts done at Ms. Kelly's.

This morning, she was reading her St. Nicholas book and singing Christmas carols.

She was so excited and jumping for joy when we got to Merrifield Gardens.

Clara helped us choose just the right one.

While they wrapped our tree, we enjoyed looking at the decorations inside.

Happy First Snow!

Hesitant at first about walking on the snow, Clara soon got used to the feel of the thick, wet snow. She had so much fun building her first snowman with Mommy and catching snowflakes on her tongue. We were not supposed to get much snow, but it started at 9:00 am and has continued into the night. Some flakes were the size of half dollars transforming Virginia (it was 55 degrees yesterday) into the winter wonderland we were not prepared for. Thank goodness for Costco sized bags of chicken nuggets because we missed our weekly grocery run.

Pre-Christmas Cutie

Here's a video of Clara helping us to set up the stockings.