Today was absolutely the perfect day. We woke up to a very snuggly Serenity. I love how she just tucks herself in your arms and leans in close to give hugs and kisses. She presses her cheek against yours and says “hug!” and “snuggle!” Today she gave lots of kisses to Mama and Daddy. Our Advent Calendar activity was to watch some family movies together. I had collected 100 of my favorite video clips from July 2008 to June 2009 onto a dvd. It was so much fun to see how much she’s grown and changed in just a year! It’s just amazing really. We all went outside to enjoy the beautiful day. We didn’t even need heavy coats. We played football together (well, nerf football). Eric ran routes while I threw the ball. Serenity giggled like a maniac whenever I said “HIKE!” She loves to run after the ball when Eric throws it, saying “go get it!” After her nap, (she actually took half a nap, and when she woke up cranky I rocked us both back to sleep in the chair and we took the rest of her nap together) she and Eric played in our bed while I started dinner. She has quite a collection of stuffed animals in there now, and she loves to cover them up. She has two Care Bears, Lucky the Monkey, her teddy bear, and I think today she added a sheep and maybe a tiger. Then Eric decided it was time to teach her how to jump on the bed, so he ran into the room, jumped and bounced on the bed. She thought it was hilarious of course =) This evening we’ve been reading books together, especially Biscuit’s Christmas Eve, and Daddy read Corduroy. I love the way she says corduroy. CorduROY. Her phrases and sentences are getting longer and more complicated. Today, Eric gave her a pacifier and said, “what do you say?” And she responded, “thank you so much.” =)