Merry Christmas!

Levi meets Santa!

Levi was definitely very happy and intrigued by Santa.

One of the benefits of working 30-hour call shifts is that "post-call", you are able to leave work at noon. I was able to avoid the Saturday Santa-line, and walked right-up to Santa Monday afternoon with Levi and Dustin.

As you can see, Levi was interested in his beard. :-)

Levi loves Santa!

WARNING: There are an excessive number of pictures on this post. Since no family was able to be in town for Christmas, I thought they would enjoy seeing how their grandson/nephew spent his First Christmas.

Our family at Dustin's Chick-fil-A Christmas party. We ate a Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse downtown. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling good that night (had a GI virus that morning), and I couldn't even eat my steak! (don't worry, I took it to-go and had it the next day . . .)

Some Christmas tree posing . . .

I love his eyes. :-)

(I think he was getting sleepy. Thought this was a funny face.)

Some more Christmas Tree posing. These pictures are in his little rocking chair, which use to be Dustin's when he was a kid. Nana and PawPaw refinished it for Levi to match the rest of his furniture. It's sweet--it plays music as it rocks.

Present-Time!!

We spread out our "Christmas" over 3 different evenings since I was on overnight call at the VA on Christmas Day (ie: went into work at 7am on the 25th and came home at noon on the 26th). Since I was still working during the day during the week and would come home in the evenings, we only had 30 min to an hour of Levi awake-time to open gifts after dinner and before he got too sleepy, wanting to go to bed. (yes, this boy WANTS to go to bed come 7pm or so). We started our Christmas on Monday, Dec 22nd and continued through the 24th. Levi opened some presents each of those evenings. Dustin and I exchanged gifts on the 22nd, and that left the evening free on the 24th for us to go to church together for a lovely Candlelight Service and have a nice dinner together. I actually prepared Italian Pot Roast the evening before and had it cooking on the crock pot all day; I was quite proud of my domestication considering my working time constraints. Although it was unfortunate for me to be on call on Christmas (especially when I have many colleagues who don't celebrate who were off), the DiChiara family had a very pleasant Christmas celebration.Levi is enjoying his Christmas Bear buddy, given to him from MaLu.

And like everything else Levi gets his hands on . . .. . .it ends up in his mouth. :-)

Opening MaLu's card.

Our Family Christmas.

Levi LOVED the bows. That would be the first thing he'd grab for (and then promptly put it in his mouth).

ADORABLE three-piece suitfrom MaLu and MaGe. I can't wait until he can fit in this!


. . . and the Kenneth Cole shoes to match!!

OUR little Christmas present. :-)

Levi loved the little drum Santa got him :-)

The drum lights up when it's hit and plays either different drum sounds or music (all pleasant to the parents). A recommended toy!

Daddy and his little boy.

Uncle Michael got Levi his own piano! (The musical instruments are getting pushed . . .)
Play away!

Sleepy boy relaxing with Mama.

Adorable winter vest and book from Aunt Heather and Uncle Greg.

PaJ and MaJ had the same idea as Santa with getting Levi a drum! This one teaches him the alphabet (English or Spanish). Levi and Daddy both have their drums to play with!

Back into his mouth . . .

What's funny is that each time he plays with either of the drums or the piano, he always turns it upside down! I guess the little boy is curious where the noise is coming from. So funny!

He loves his blocks Santa got him. For a few minutes he sat there trying to see how he can hold and gather all four of them at the same time.

. . . And back into his mouth.

Levi always finds the tags on all his toys, and it tends to be his favorite part to play with.

Our little family at church after the Christmas Eve Service.

(The adorable outfit is a gift from PaJ and MaJ).

Cincinnati Reds ball cap from Nana and PawPaw.

"My First Sounds" Baby Einstein DVD from Nana and PawPaw.

What's in this box??

Whoa! It's Jack!

My two good-looking men. :-)

I'm in denial that Levi will soon be walking and able to use this toy . . .

Mama and her boy. :-)

Thanks for sharing in Levi's First Christmas!

Let it snow! . . . and other December Fun

Happy December! (belatedly so). Below are pictures from Levi's first snow.

[A note to our family--contrary to your popular opinion, the snow does NOT get that bad here; it was all gone the next day. NOT a good reason to "avoid travelling in the winter" :-) ]

He's not so sure . . .

Whoa--it's way too cold!!

I don't think he liked the snow that much--he's face turned red out of shock on how cold it felt. Just wait until next year . . .

He is really just content sitting there playing with his toys. Still no hint of an interest in crawling.

I think the below two pictures are hilarious. We went to visit some friends, the Wootens, and Levi was just content chillin' on the couch, mesmorized by Christopher (he seems to be fasinated in men with glasses or facial hair). He just sat there loungin' like a little man!

Don't get too excited from this picture!! It is posed. Levi cannot yet do this on his own; infact, it is even quite difficult to get him in this position. Grandpa is the culprit:

My parents, Grandpa and Grandma, were our only Christmas visitors this year. They came up the 1st full week of December. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of there visit (other than that above). I was still working and on overnight call twice during their stay, so I, unfortunately, saw them a little bit. There was good bonding time, however, on their end with Levi, which is great.

Grandma discovered that Levi could sit in this spot for quite awhile playing with the basket of toys. Good to know!!

Daddy and Levi have gotten into quite a routine. While I'm heading out to work early, Daddy give Levi his morning bottle while he jumps in the shower. This little boy, 7 months old now, can palm that bottle like nothing else. Here he is just one-handing it.

The following great pictures are taken by Grandma when she visited. Thanks for the sweet pictures! Merry Christmas!