Lulu turns 2...aka Christmas

December 22nd is Lulu's birthday.  It fell on the solstice this year which I absolutely love.  The winter solstice is my favorite.  While it marks the shortest day of the year, it also means a return of light, a promise that winter will not hang on forever and that we will begin again to have longer days. Christmas fare at our house - a bright tree, shining metallic ornaments, strings of lights and shimmery garland, and plants that bloom in winter - symbolizes this desire to have more light, to remind the sun to keep shining again through the new year.  Her name, AnaLucia, means grace and light, a name chosen so carefully more than two years ago.  Of course she has graced us with her own little shining light. Her birthday provides us a special moment to be grateful for the changing of seasons, to be graced again with the return of the sunlight, to remember things that are bright and new even as the world seems dark and old.  
Here are some pictures from our brightest of holidays.

Making our tree Merry and Bright.

Mmmm...cookie dough.

Decorating Sugar Cookies for Santa

Party Girls.

I made cupcakes...not pretty but delish if i do say so myself.

This is Lulu's 'Smile' face.  We visited the Natural History Museum on her birthday.

Darrin took her on her first carousel ride - on the mall in d.c.

Sleeping on the Metro on the ride home from Smithsonian.

Santa visited Oakwood on a fire truck.  Little bit scary for Lulu.

I've started a tradition of taking Lulu's picture each Christmas in her stocking.  It's hard to believe this was her third Christmas!  Look how she's grown!